Three charged over Iran-backed plot to bomb RAF Fairford air base in England
A US-jailed Iranian-Iraqi national allegedly passed coded messages to operatives planning to bomb RAF Fairford. Two other suspects remain at large.
Jailed man used coded calls to direct RAF Fairford bombing plot, indictment says
A man held on terrorism charges at a federal detention facility in Brooklyn was able to relay secret instructions to Iranian operatives targeting a British air base housing US bombers, according to a newly unsealed indictment, jamaica-gleaner.com reports.
Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, a dual Iranian-Iraqi national incarcerated at the Metropolitan Detention Center, is accused of using coded language during phone and video calls with his mother and sister in Iraq to encourage associates to carry out an attack on the Royal Air Force Base in Fairford, in western England — even after his arrest last spring.
The indictment, unsealed Tuesday, sheds new light on an episode that began on September 27, when authorities detained a group of men on suspected explosives and terrorism offences after three suspicious vans were observed travelling toward the Fairford base, where American bombers are stationed.
Two additional men have been charged in the case. Mohsen Mohajeri, an Iranian national, and Mohammad Ali al-Hassani, an Iraqi national, are neither in US custody. The charges allege that Iran-backed operatives plotted nearly 20 terror strikes against Jewish communities across Europe and the United States, as well as the military installation at Fairford.
Manhattan US Attorney Jamie McDonald said the defendants "helped orchestrate a campaign of terror on behalf of terrorist organisations affiliated with Iran that targeted Jewish communities in Europe and the United States, and the British military base, RAF Fairford, housing American service members." McDonald added: "The threat presented by Iran and Iran-backed terrorist groups to America and our allies is not hypothetical – it is very real."
Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a direct warning: "Anyone who plans a terrorist plot on a military base housing American service members will be prosecuted by the United States government."
In the United Kingdom, seven men arrested in connection with the Fairford incident were released on bail. One was subsequently rearrested on suspicion of assisting Iran's intelligence service and charged, together with a second man, under the National Security Act, British authorities confirmed.
Source: Google News JM — Crime