A 52-year-old Iraqi man who sought political asylum in the United States, Shihab Ahmed Shihab, was arrested after plotting to kill former US president George W Bush, according to the US Justice Department on 24 May.
He had told an FBI informant that he wanted to smuggle at least 4 other Iraqis into the US over the Mexico border to put the plan into action.
His hit team would’ve comprised of former Iraqi intelligence agents, with the remaining “assassins” being members of militant groups such as the al-Raed, and the Islamic State.
Shihab said that they wanted to kill Bush because they “felt he was responsible for killing many Iraqis and breaking apart the entire country of Iraq.”
He claimed to have killed many Americans over the years after the invasion of Iraq, and that he was the cousin of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was the former Islamic State head.
Shihab was arrested on Tuesday and charged in federal court with aiding and abetting the attempted murder of a former US official, as well as an immigration crime.
He entered the US on a visitor visa in September 2020 and had sought asylum in March 2021 upon the expiry of his visa.