Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi , with Qassem Soleimani. Soleimani is the Iranian commander of the Quds force who was killed in January 2020 by a US drone strike ordered by President Donald Trump at Baghdad International Airport. (FBI-NY)
Ivanka Trump, the daughter of US President Donald Trump, was allegedly singled out in a revenge plot linked to the 2020 US drone strike that killed Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani — a detail now casting fresh light on what US prosecutors describe as a sprawling Iran-linked terror network spanning Europe and North America.
According to reporting cited by the New York Post, Iraqi national Mohammad Baqer Al-Saadi — recently arrested in Turkiye and extradited to the US — allegedly discussed targeting Ivanka because of her father’s role in Soleimani’s killing.
Investigators reportedly said Al-Saadi possessed a blueprint of her Florida residence and had posted threats online, including a map of the area around the home she shares with Jared Kushner.
One cited Arabic-language message reportedly warned that “neither your palaces nor the Secret Service will protect you,” while another post allegedly threatened to “burn down the house of Trump” in retaliation.
When US and Turkish authorities arrested Al-Saadi in Turkiye on May 15, charges later unsealed in federal court in New York painted a troubling portrait. Prosecutors say Al-Saadi was a senior operative in an Iran-backed militia who helped plot attacks across two continents.
Announcing Al-Saadi’s arrest, the US Justice Department said he faces six “terrorism-related charges” tied to alleged activities with Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah — a US-designated foreign terrorist organization — and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Taken into custody in Turkiye before being handed to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and transferred to the US, Al-Saadi appeared in a Manhattan federal court and was detained pending trial.
The 32-year-old Iraqi national “directed and urged others to attack US and Israeli interests” to further the “terrorist goals” of Kataib Hezbollah and the IRGC, according to court papers.
The charges include conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, conspiracy to provide material support for acts of terrorism, and conspiracy to bomb a place of public use.
His defense lawyer, Andrew Dalack, told CBS News that his client was “essentially being subjected to a political prosecution in that he’s a prisoner of war and should be treated as such.”
Al-Saadi, through Dalack, accused the US government of targeting him solely for his past ties to Soleimani, former commander of the IRGC’s extraterritorial Quds Force, who was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad in January 2020.
Dalack told the BBC that his client was being held in solitary confinement, “which we think is cruel and unnecessary.”
Prosecutors say Al-Saadi was involved in the “planning, execution and promotion” of around 18 attacks in Europe — including bombings of synagogues and community centers in Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK — as well as two attacks in Canada targeting US and Israeli interests.
These were allegedly carried out under the banner of Harakat Ashab Al-Yamin Al-Islamiya, a component of Kataib Hezbollah.
The attacks began on March 9, just days after the US and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran — a timeline prosecutors say underscores the scale and coordination of the alleged campaign.
Among them was a bombing at a synagogue in Liege, Belgium, on March 9; an arson attack at a synagogue in Rotterdam on March 13; an explosive attack at a Jewish school in Amsterdam the following day; and another at the Bank of New York Mellon in the same city on March 15.
The federal complaint also links Al-Saadi to an April 29 stabbing in London’s Golders Green neighborhood, where intelligence gathering later revealed operatives possessed detailed maps, reconnaissance photographs and specific logistical plans provided by their handlers.
“In the span of just three months, Mohammad Al-Saadi allegedly directed 18 terrorist attacks throughout Europe — including against US citizens and interests — and planned to conduct a similar attack here in our country,” FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle Jr. said in a statement.
The complaint ties Al-Saadi to prominent figures in Iran’s regional network. Prosecutors say he worked closely with Soleimani and Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, the Kataib Hezbollah leader killed alongside Soleimani in 2020.
The Justice Department says Iran and the IRGC “use other terrorist and paramilitary proxies in the region to take lethal action and to carry out operations against the US and its allies,” with Kataib Hezbollah receiving “extensive training, funding, logistical support, weapons, and intelligence” from the Quds Force.
Arab News
