IRGC-trained Iraqi arrested over assassination plot against Trump's daughter Ivanka

Key Takeaways

• Donald Trump with Ivanka Trump (Image/X).
• US President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump was allegedly targeted for assassination by an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)-trained member in a revenge plot linked to the 2020 killing of top Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani, according to a report by the New York Post.According to the report, recently captured suspect Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, 32, had allegedly made a 'pledge' to kill Ivanka Trump and was even found with a blueprint of her Florida residence.The Iraqi national was allegedly seeking revenge for the US drone strike in Baghdad that killed Soleimani, the powerful commander of Iran's elite Quds Force, during Donald Trump's presidency six years ago."After Qasem was killed, he [Al-Saadi] went around telling people ‘we need to kill Ivanka to burn down the house of Trump the way he burned down our house,’" Entifadh Qanbar, a former deputy military attaché in the Iraqi embassy in Washington, told the New York Post.The New York Post further reported that Al-Saadi had shared a map image on X showing the area in Florida where Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner own a $24 million home.Alongside the image, he allegedly posted a chilling message in Arabic threatening Americans."I say to the Americans look at this picture and know that neither your palaces nor the Secret Service will protect you.
• We are currently in the stage of surveillance and analysis.I told you, our revenge is a matter of time," the translated message read.Al-Saadi was arrested in Turkey on May 15 and later extradited to the United States.
• The Department of Justice has charged him in connection with 18 attacks and attempted attacks across Europe and the US.US authorities allege that he was involved in several attacks targeting American and Jewish sites, including the firebombing of the Bank of New York Mellon building in Amsterdam in March, the stabbing of two Jewish victims in London in April and a shooting attack near the US consulate building in Toronto.Federal investigators also accused him of planning or coordinating attacks against Jewish institutions, including a synagogue bombing in Liège, Belgium and an arson attack on a temple in Rotterdam.According to the report, Al-Saadi is believed to have links with both Kata’ib Hezbollah and Iran's IRGC.Elizabeth Tsurkov, a senior fellow at the Washington DC-based New Lines Institute who was kidnapped in Baghdad in 2023 and later released, told the New York Post that Al-Saadi maintained close ties with Iranian military networks.He alleged that Al-Saadi was raised largely in Baghdad by his Iraqi mother before being sent to Tehran for training with the IRGC.Investigators said the suspect maintained an active social media presence despite allegedly being deeply involved in extremist activities.Court documents reportedly include images posted by Al-Saadi showing him with Soleimani at what appeared to be military facilities, reviewing maps and operational equipment.In one social media post made months after Soleimani’s killing, Al-Saadi allegedly wrote: "I will leave social media and turn off all my phones until the American enemy is defeated … victory or martyrdom."Ivanka Trump converted to Orthodox Judaism before marrying Jared Kushner in 2009.
• Al-Saadi is currently being held in solitary confinement at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.