Nevada police allege woman stabbed date in revenge for 2020 killing of Iranian general
A woman allegedly stabbed a man she had met on a dating website in retaliation for the 2020 death of an Iranian military leader killed in an American drone strike, police say.
Nika Nikoubin, 21, has been charged with attempted murder, battery with a deadly weapon and burglary, KLAS-TV reported.
Nikoubin and the man met online on a dating website, Henderson police alleged in an arrest report. The pair then agreed to meet at Sunset Station hotel on 5 March, renting a room together.
While in the room, the pair began having sex when Nikoubin put a blindfold on the man, according to the police report. Nikoubin then turned off the lights, and several minutes later, the man “felt a pain on the side of his neck”, KLAS reported.
Nikoubin allegedly stabbed the man in the neck “for revenge against US troops for the killing of Qassem Suleimani in 2020”, police wrote in a report.
US forces killed Suleimani, a top general in Iran’s military, in a drone strike in January 2020. Suleimani headed the expeditionary Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. He gained prominence for advising Shia paramilitary forces fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq, before it was defeated in 2017.
After the stabbing, the man pushed Nikoubin away and ran out of the room to call 911, police said.
Nikoubin also ran out of the room, telling a hotel employee that she had just stabbed a man, police said.
When talking to police, Nikoubin told an investigator “she wanted revenge,” police said. She said she had listened to a song called Grave Digger, which “gave her the motivation … to carry out her revenge”.
The man’s current condition was not available, the Las Vegas Review Journal reported.
Nikoubin was scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing 24 March, the newspaper said. It was not clear if she has a lawyer.