New York air traffic controllers received a message threatening to avenge the death of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani.
The alert was received on Monday, just a day after the anniversary of the U.S. drone attack ordered by President Donald Trump that killed Soleimani and Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
“We are flying on a plane to Capitol on Wednesday. Soleimani will be avenged,” a voice is heard saying in audio obtained by CBS News. It has not been verified by NBC News and it is not clear who sent the threat.
The Federal Aviation Administration said it referred the matter to the FBI.
Government officials told NBC News that they do not believe that an attack alert is reliable, saying that it is not difficult for a person to access the radio.
The threat comes as thousands of Iraqis, shouting anti-American slogans, gather in Baghdad’s central square on Sunday to protest Soleimani’s death.
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The general, who helped kill Americans for more than a decade, was killed on January 3, 2020, near an airport in Baghdad. During a meeting days after his death, Trump called Soleimani a “monster”.
“If you look at his past – he was called a ‘monster’ and he was a monster,” said the president. “And he is no longer a monster; he is dead. And that is a good thing for many countries. And he was planning a very big attack and a very bad attack for us and other people. And we stopped him.”
