U.S. Prosecutors Charged Three Men in an Alleged Iran-Backed Plot Against a U.K. Base Hosting American Jets

Federal prosecutors in New York have charged three men with terrorism offenses over what they describe as an Iran-backed campaign of nearly 20 attacks and attempted attacks in Europe and the United States, including a September plot against a British air base that hosted American forces, NPR reported. The indictment, unsealed Tuesday, contains allegations that have not been proven in court.

The defendants are named as Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, 32, who holds Iranian and Iraqi citizenship; Mohsen Mohajeri, 48, an Iranian; and Mohammed Ali Al-Hassani, 35, an Iraqi. Prosecutors allege they acted on behalf of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Iraqi militia Kata'ib Hezbollah, both designated by the United States as foreign terrorist organizations, and used a network of associates to target Jewish communities and a British base hosting U.S. troops. The filings cite plots against synagogues in London and New York.

According to the indictment, the men at one point in April sat in a room and directed an attack in real time over FaceTime, telling an attacker when to light and throw what seemed to be an incendiary device, while Al-Saadi allegedly filmed. The next day, Al-Hassani is accused of telling a man attacking a London synagogue to "light it up like a Christmas tree." Prosecutors say a group calling itself Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya, which they describe as a front for Kata'ib Hezbollah, claimed roughly 18 attacks last spring, and that as many as seven were in the United Kingdom, the most intensely targeted country in Europe. Those claimed attacks, the indictment says, included arson, explosives and a near-fatal stabbing of two Jewish men in London, one of them a dual U.S.-British citizen.

Vans at RAF Fairford, and a separate arrest

Prosecutors say Al-Hassani was operating from Iran but began paying associates in Britain in August to film the perimeter of Royal Air Force Fairford in Gloucestershire, several hours west of London. They allegedly obtained vans and drums of fuel, looked into buying chemical accelerants, and gathered metal that could serve as shrapnel. The vans were fitted with sham branding for a fuel-delivery firm and a pool-supply company. On Sept. 26, three of the vans set off toward the base, which housed large numbers of U.S. military aircraft. At least two were stopped at a security roadblock; British authorities seized all three early the next morning and arrested those inside. The United States almost immediately redeployed several long-range bombers from the base, NPR reported. The indictment says Al-Saadi, who had been detained abroad in May and brought to the United States, allegedly kept directing the network from jail through coded calls with relatives in Iraq, and three days before the plot asked them to get money to Al-Hassani. British authorities had earlier charged two men with national-security offenses tied to the incident.

In a separate case, British counterterrorism police said Tuesday they had arrested a 41-year-old member of the U.S. Army on suspicion of offenses under Britain's National Security Act 2023. The suspect, who has not been named, is a senior U.S. soldier stationed at Imjin Barracks near Gloucester, home to NATO's Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, the U.S. Army's Counterintelligence Command told NPR. Officers searched two addresses in Gloucestershire. That arrest is a separate investigation from the Fairford indictment.