New York air traffic controllers received a message threatening to avenge Iranian General Qassem Soleimani.
The warning was received Monday, just one day after the commemoration of the US drone ordered by President Donald Trump that killed Soleimani and Iraqi military commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
“We are flying in a plane into the Capitol on Wednesday. Soleimani will be avenged,” the audio obtained by CBS News said. 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 FBI.
Government officials told NBC News they did not believe the warning of an attack was credible and said it was not difficult for anyone to access the radios.
The threat came as thousands of Iraqis, singing anti-American slogans, gathered in central Baghdad on Sunday to protest the killing of Soleimani.
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The general, who has been helping to kill Americans for more than a decade, was assassinated on January 3, 2020, near an airport in Baghdad. Trump called Soleimani a “monster” during a meeting days after his death.
“If you look at his past, he’s called a ‘monster,’ and he was a monster,” the president said. “And he is no longer a monster; he is dead. And that’s a good thing for many countries. And he has planned a very great attack and a very bad attack for us and other people. And we have stopped him. “
