Senior national security officials said they had been informed of a threat that a plane would crash on Capitol Hill in Washington DC on Wednesday, but told Fox News that the threat did not appear to be “credible”.
CBS News first reported the threat.
“We are flying on a plane to the Capitol on Wednesday,” said an audio recording of the threat sent to air traffic controllers in New York, obtained by CBS News. “Soleimani will be avenged.”
The threat referred to Qassem Soleimani – the Iranian general killed in Iraq last year in a U.S. air strike ordered by President Trump. American officials considered Soleimani – chief of the elite Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps – as dangerous as the Islamic State and blamed him for the deaths of hundreds of American soldiers.
A national security official told Fox News that “relevant agencies” were informed of Tuesday’s incident and that “while it may be a scam, it is being taken seriously”.
And a senior defense official told Fox News that they take “all threats seriously”, but that “this does not appear to be reliable, although we will continue to evaluate”.
Another senior US official told Fox News that the threat “does not look legitimate”.
“We are not very concerned,” said the official.
In a statement to Fox News, the FBI said it “takes all threats of public security violence seriously”. The Capitol Police was working with federal police partners.
The Federal Aviation Administration works with authorities and national security partners on “reported security threats that could affect aviation security,” the agency said in a statement.
The threat comes as Congress is due to meet on Wednesday in a joint session to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the November presidential election.
Iran vowed revenge for the January 3, 2020, assassination. At the time, Tehran retaliated with its own air strike against a military base in Iraq, resulting in concussions for up to 100 American soldiers.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPLICATION
In a tweet on Tuesday, Iran’s foreign minister, Javad Zarif, recalled Soleimani, saying he was “cowardly murdered by the chief terrorist”.
Jennifer Griffin of Fox News contributed to this report.