Ivanka Trump, the elder daughter of US President Donald Trump, was the target of an assassination plot by an Iraqi commander of the Iran-backed militia Kata’ib Hezbollah, the New York Post reported on Friday, citing sources.
The suspect, allegedly sought to avenge the January 2020 US drone strike, ordered by during his first term, that killed
Al-Saadi was arrested in Turkey on May 15 and extradited to the United States, where he was presented before US Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn in a Manhattan federal court and ordered detained pending trial. He is being held in solitary confinement at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
The disclosure comes against the backdrop of the US-Israel war on Iran, launched on February 28, and amid reports that the Trump administration is preparing a fresh round of military strikes on Tehran.
Citing Entifadh Qanbar, a former deputy military attaché at the Iraqi Embassy in Washington, the New York Post reported that Al-Saadi repeatedly spoke of killing Ivanka Trump after Soleimani’s death.
“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’,” Qanbar was quoted as saying.
“We heard that he had a plan of Ivanka’s house in Florida,” Qanbar added. A second source independently confirmed the plot to the newspaper.
Qanbar, who now heads the Future Foundation — a US-based nonprofit working on US-Iraqi Kurdish ties — told the Post that Al-Saadi viewed Soleimani as a father figure after the 2006 death of his own father, Iranian General Ahmad Kazemi.
According to the report, Al-Saadi obtained a layout of Ivanka Trump’s Florida residence, the property she shares with husband Jared Kushner, and posted a map of the surrounding community on his X account along with an Arabic-language threat.
The translated post read: “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… our revenge is a matter of time.”
The criminal complaint, unsealed in Manhattan federal court on May 15, details how Al-Saadi was eventually caught.
US prosecutors allege he attempted to orchestrate a coordinated bombing and arson campaign against Jewish institutions in New York City, Los Angeles and Scottsdale, Arizona, unaware that his contact was an undercover FBI officer.
Al-Saadi sent the officer a USD 3,000 cryptocurrency down-payment to carry out an attack on a Manhattan synagogue, prosecutors said. Court documents quote a message he sent the undercover officer: “I wanna see good news tonight… not tomorrow bro.”
He was apprehended in Turkey shortly after and transferred into FBI custody.
The Justice Department complaint alleges Al-Saadi worked with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards or IRGC to coordinate at least 18 terror attacks in Europe and two in Canada since March 2026, in addition to the foiled US plots.
Specific incidents attributed to him in the complaint and corroborating reports include:
The European attacks were claimed under the name Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya, identified by US prosecutors as a front for Kata’ib Hezbollah.
Al-Saadi has been charged with six counts, including two counts of conspiracy to provide material support to foreign terrorist organisations (Kata’ib Hezbollah and the IRGC), conspiracy to bomb a place of public use, and destruction of property by fire or explosives. The bombing-conspiracy count carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Al-Saadi “directed and urged others to attack US and Israeli interests and to kill Americans and Jews in the US and abroad.”
5 questions on the IRGC-linked Iraqi commander caught in an FBI sting
Who is the alleged target of the assassination plot revealed in the New York Post report?
Which Iran-backed militia does the suspect Mohammad Baqer Al-Saadi command?
What event did Al-Saadi allegedly seek revenge for?
How was Al-Saadi caught, according to the unsealed US federal complaint?
How many terror attacks does the Justice Department allege Al-Saadi coordinated since March 2026?
Al-Saadi was raised in Baghdad by his Iraqi mother before being sent to Tehran for training, the New York Post reported.
Researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Russian-Israeli Princeton University academic who was herself held hostage by Kata’ib Hezbollah for more than two years until September 2025, told the newspaper that Al-Saadi had close connections to Soleimani and, after his death, to his successor Esmail Qaani.
Investigators allege Al-Saadi ran a travel agency specialising in religious trips, which he used as cover to move between countries and coordinate with terror cells. At the time of his arrest, he was carrying an Iraqi service passport, a special document requiring the Iraqi prime minister’s approval, that allowed him to bypass airport security checks and access VIP airport facilities.
Despite his alleged covert role, he frequently posted on social media, sharing selfies from European landmarks and images of weapons systems.
The Trump administration is preparing for a fresh round of military strikes against Iran, sources with direct knowledge of the planning told CBS News on Friday. No final decision has been taken, the sources said.
Several US military and intelligence officials have reportedly cancelled Memorial Day weekend plans. Trump, who was scheduled to spend the weekend at his New Jersey golf property in Bedminster, is now expected to return to the White House on Friday evening, Axios and Politico reported.
Trump also confirmed he will skip the wedding of his eldest son, scheduled for Saturday in the Bahamas.
“While I very much wanted to be with my son, Don Jr., and the newest member of the Trump Family, his soon-to-be wife, Bettina, circumstances pertaining to Government, and my love for the United States of America, do not allow me to do so,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I feel it is important for me to remain in Washington, D.C., at the White House during this important period of time.”
He had earlier told reporters in the Oval Office that the timing was “not good” because of “a thing called Iran and other things.”
The Al-Saadi case extends a documented pattern of alleged Iranian retaliation efforts against Donald Trump and his inner circle since the Soleimani strike. In November 2024, US prosecutors charged Farhad Shakeri, an Afghan national believed to be operating from Iran, with an IRGC-directed plot to assassinate Trump himself during the presidential campaign — also framed as revenge for Soleimani.
(With inputs from agencies)
