News Desk: An Islamic State sympathiser planned to murder former US President George W Bush but the plot was discovered by the FBI, US authorities have revealed.
The suspect, a resident of Ohio, allegedly sought to have Iraqi operatives smuggled into the US from Mexico for the operation.
He is now in custody and appeared at a federal court in Ohio on Tuesday.
The FBI used informants and electronic surveillance to foil his plan.
According to court documents, the suspect – identified as Shihab Ahmed Shihab, 52 – is an Iraqi national who has been in the US since 2020 and had a pending asylum application.
The FBI claims that Mr Shihab told a confidential source, a purported people smuggler, that he belonged to a group known as Al-Raed – Arabic for thunder – which is based in Qatar.
