Three Iran-backed operatives have been indicted in New York on terrorism charges, including a plot to use vans loaded with fuel, chemical accelerants, and metal shrapnel in an explosive attack at a British Royal Air Force base where American troops were stationed.
The eight-count superseding indictment, unsealed Tuesday, charges the men with supporting the foreign terrorist organizations Kata’ib Hizballah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The defendants are Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, a dual Iranian-Iraqi national; Mohsen Mohajeri, an Iranian national; and Mohammad Ali al-Hassani, an Iraqi national.
The Justice Department announced that the three men were involved in nearly 20 attacks and attempted attacks across Europe and the United States, including a September plot at RAF Fairford in England, which housed U.S. military aircraft and personnel.
“Anyone who plans a terrorist plot on a military base housing American servicemembers will be prosecuted by the United States government,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said. “Al-Saadi allegedly coordinated with his co-defendants in the days leading up to the attempted terrorist plot. This Department of Justice will continue dismantling terrorist networks and protecting the American people from terrorist organizations.”
FBI Director Kash Patel did not hold back. “According to the indictment, one of the subjects is behind bars awaiting trial yet he allegedly sent coded messages to assist in future acts of violence,” Patel said. “This FBI will use all our resources to detect and stop such terrorist attacks as we’ve done the last 21 months – with over 1,300 terrorists disrupted and nearly 7,000 Foreign Terrorist Organization related arrests, up 1,057%. All those who threaten our homeland will get the message – justice will find you.”
Prosecutors say al-Hassani orchestrated the plot from Iran, and al-Saadi coordinated it from a New York prison cell. Al-Saadi had been arrested overseas around May 1 and later transferred to U.S. custody after prior charges for planning and promoting approximately 18 terrorist attacks in Europe and attempting to bomb a synagogue in Manhattan. From behind bars, prosecutors say, he used phone calls with his family in Iraq to pass coded messages to Mohajeri and al-Hassani, who were both in Iran.
In one call, he told relatives he owed Mohajeri money and had them pass along messages about “work,” which prosecutors call “a term al-Saadi regularly used to describe terrorist activity.” On September 24, he allegedly asked how al-Hassani was doing and told his family to “give him money so we can do it.”
Al-Hassani’s network of paid UK operatives moved on September 26, driving fuel-packed vehicles toward RAF Fairford, the Royal Air Force base in England then used by U.S. forces. Using vehicles disguised as commercial ones, the alleged terrorists had already conducted surveillance of the base, sourced chemical accelerants including large quantities of potassium chloride, and acquired metal for use as shrapnel. The plot was cut short when security blocked at least two of the vehicles before they could close in.
The method of fuel-laden vehicles turned into bombs with improvised accelerants and shrapnel eerily echoes the 1993 World Trade Center truck bomb.
“As alleged, these defendants helped orchestrate a campaign of terror on behalf of terrorist organizations affiliated with Iran that targeted Jewish communities in Europe and the United States, and the British military base, RAF Fairford, housing American service members,” said U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald of the Southern District of New York, whose office is prosecuting the case. “Even after one of their co-conspirators was arrested and placed in federal custody, the defendants allegedly continued coordinating terrorist activity through coded communications and a network of associates overseas. The threat presented by Iran and Iran-backed terrorist groups to America and our allies is not hypothetical, it is very real. Our Office will not stop working to address and disrupt this threat, and to prosecute those responsible.”
It wasn’t their first attack. Prosecutors say all three helped orchestrate 18 attacks in Europe under the name Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya, or HAYI, which the Justice Department calls a front for Kata’ib Hizballah. This past spring HAYI claimed attacks across Europe, including seven in the U.K., using arson and explosives. One was a near-fatal stabbing of two Jewish men in London, one of them a dual U.S.-British citizen, as reported by Just the News.
The indictment includes photos of al-Saadi appearing to stand in front of a stash of machine guns in a conference room, with a map of the United States on the wall listing “legitimate targets.” Another piece of evidence is an April FaceTime video of an attack happening in real time, with al-Hassani allegedly directing the attackers.
Department of Justice photo of al-Saadi with machine guns and a map of the United States marked with “legitimate targets.” (DOJ)
Mohajeri and al-Hassani are still not in custody. The FBI’s New York Joint Terrorism Task Force led the investigation.
A synagogue in Manhattan, American troops overseas and a map of U.S. targets on the wall. Iran’s proxies aren’t just a threat overseas. They’re coming for us here at home.
