Who is Iranian-linked terrorist who plotted Ivanka Trump's assassination
What's the story
A terrorist trained by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had reportedly planned to assassinate Ivanka Trump, the daughter of President Donald Trump. The plot was revealed after Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi was arrested in Turkey and extradited to the United States. The 32-year-old Iraqi national had vowed revenge for the killing of Iranian military chief Qasem Soleimani in a US drone strike in 2020.
Assassination blueprint
Al-Saadi had blueprint of Trump's Florida home
Al-Saadi was reportedly found with a blueprint of Ivanka Trump's Florida home during his arrest. He had also posted a map of their residence on X (formerly Twitter) in 2021, along with a threat that read, "Revenge is a matter of time." After Soleimani's death, Al-Saadi had allegedly gone around telling people he would "we need to kill Ivanka to burn down the house of Trump the way he burned down our house."
Criminal background
Al-Saadi's links to Iran and attacks on US targets
Al-Saadi has been linked to several attacks on US and Jewish targets, including the bombing of the Bank of New York Mellon in Amsterdam. He was also allegedly involved in a stabbing incident in London and a shooting at the US consulate in Toronto this year. Apart from being trained by IRGC, Al-Saadi was also an operative for Kata'ib Hizballah, an Iraqi Shia paramilitary group backed by Tehran and designated as a terrorist organization by the US.
Personal history
Soleimani was a father figure to al-Saadi
Al-Saadi was raised in Baghdad by his Iraqi mother, while his father was an Iranian brigadier general. He was sent to Tehran at a young age for IRGC training. After his father died in 2006, Qasem Soleimani became a father figure to Al-Saadi. The killing of Soleimani by US forces left Al-Saadi devastated and prompted him to plot against Ivanka Trump.