The Department of Justice indicted 32-year-old Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al Saadi for directing nearly 20 attacks and plots against American and Jewish targets across Europe and the United States.
This is not abstract terrorism. Kata’ib Hizballah, the Iranian proxy he commanded in Iraq, has the blood of hundreds of American service members on its hands.
Recommended Stories
From the roadside bombs and sniper attacks that slaughtered U.S. troops during the Iraq War to the January 2024 drone strike in Jordan that killed three American soldiers and wounded more than 40 others, this group has spent two decades murdering Americans with direct Iranian backing and funding.
TRUMP HEADS TO SITUATION ROOM TO MAKE ‘FINAL DETERMINATION’ ON IRAN DEAL
Even more chilling, al Saadi pledged to assassinate Ivanka Trump. He possessed detailed blueprints of her Florida home and posted threats on X, declaring that neither her palaces nor the Secret Service would protect her. This was revenge for the 2020 drone strike that killed his mentor, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Gen. Qasem Soleimani. Phone evidence recovered from al Saadi shows direct coordination with Guard leaders and photographs of him with Soleimani himself.
But al Saadi is no longer operating from abroad. Arrested in Turkey and transferred to U.S. custody, he now faces justice in an American courtroom. One of Iran’s most dangerous terrorists sits in a U.S. cell, yet the group that spawned him still rots inside Iraq’s government and security forces.
This is not just justice served — it is a strategic decapitation of Tehran’s terror network. The man who threatened Trump and coordinated with Soleimani’s successors is now where he belongs. America has him — Baghdad must now answer for the rest of this deadly network.
This matters now more than ever. Iran’s proxy network is reeling from American and Israeli blows. Al Saadi’s capture yields a rare strategic window to decapitate Kata’ib Hizballah’s leadership before Tehran can rebuild it and launch new waves of attacks against American global interests. Ergo, the job is not finished while the group’s infrastructure and remaining operatives remain deeply embedded inside Iraq.
With al Saadi now in American hands, Washington must demand that Baghdad extradite every remaining Kata’ib Hizballah senior operative and dismantle the militia’s infrastructure once and for all. If Iraq refuses or continues shielding these Iranian-backed killers, the U.S. must respond with maximum pressure.
Washington must immediately expand sanctions on Iraqi oil officials and Popular Mobilization Forces commanders tied to the terrorist group. Impose secondary sanctions on every bank, construction firm, and importer facilitating their transactions. Revoke visas and freeze the assets of Iraqi lawmakers and security officials obstructing cooperation. Resume precision strikes on remaining weapons depots and diplomatically isolate noncompliant figures. No more delays. No more excuses. These measures would cripple the group’s drone and rocket capabilities, weaken Iran’s grip on Iraq’s government and security apparatus, and prevent Kata’ib Hizballah from maturing into a global terror franchise capable of targeting America at will.
GEORGIA BECOMES IRAN’S TERRORIST INCUBATOR
President Donald Trump understands strength better than most. He knows that hesitation and half-measures only invite more American deaths and greater threats against his own family. Iraq must choose: Stand with the United States against these Iranian-backed killers or face the full force of American sanctions, the loss of economic partnership, and renewed military consequences.
The families of the hundreds of Americans murdered by Kata’ib Hizballah and the Trump family itself are watching closely. Now that their leader is on U.S. soil, finish the job before it is too late for more innocent American lives to be lost forever.
Jose Lev Alvarez is an American–Israeli scholar specializing in Middle Eastern security policy. A multilingual veteran of the IDF special forces and the U.S. Army, he holds three master’s degrees and is completing a Ph.D. in Intelligence and Global Security in the Washington, D.C., area.
