Three Iran-backed men charged over plot targeting RAF Fairford and Jewish communities
US prosecutors have indicted three Iran-linked operatives over nearly 20 planned attacks across Europe and the US, including an attempted assault on RAF Fairford in England.
US indicts three Iran-linked operatives over RAF Fairford plot and attacks on Jewish targets
Three men allegedly backed by Iran have been charged by US authorities with conspiring to carry out nearly 20 terrorist attacks targeting Jewish communities across Europe and the United States, as well as a planned assault on a Royal Air Force base in England used by US forces, nbcnews.com reports.
The charges — laid out in a superseding indictment unsealed in federal court in New York City — name Mohammad Al-Saadi, a dual Iranian-Iraqi national; Mohsen Mohajeri, an Iranian national; and Mohammad Ali Al-Hassani, an Iraqi national. Only Al-Saadi is currently in custody.
US Attorney Jamie McDonald said Al-Saadi, who was arrested in the spring, continued to coordinate with his co-defendants in the days leading up to the attempted September attack on RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, where US bombers and troops had been stationed.
"As alleged, these 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 said in a statement. "The threat presented by Iran and Iran-backed terrorist groups to America and our allies is not hypothetical — it is very real."
The indictment sheds new light on an episode that had remained largely unexplained since five men were detained after midnight on 27 September on suspicion of explosives and terrorism offences, after three suspicious vans were spotted travelling toward the base in western England.
According to prosecutors, Al-Hassani paid associates to conduct surveillance of RAF Fairford in August and then funded several individuals to advance the plot in September — by procuring vans and barrels of fuel, researching the purchase of chemical accelerants including large quantities of potassium chloride, and acquiring metallic objects that could be used as explosive shrapnel.
The operatives went so far as to produce custom decals to make the vans appear to belong to a fuel company and a swimming pool supply business, authorities allege. Al-Hassani is said to have then directed those individuals to drive to the base with the fuel, at which point UK law enforcement intervened and detained the men.
Al-Saadi is alleged to have directed the RAF Fairford operation from inside a US prison, using video and phone calls to family members in Iraq, who then passed coded messages to Al-Hassani and Mohajeri. In a July call with his sister, Al-Saadi asked: "What are we doing about all our old work?" — a phrase investigators say referred to terrorist activity. His sister replied: "It isn't cancelled."
The indictment further alleges that the three men conspired to deploy a network of contacts in the United Kingdom to carry out attacks on behalf of an Iran-aligned terrorist network, which prosecutors say included Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Kata'ib Hizballah — both designated by the US government as foreign terrorist organisations.
Al-Saadi pleaded not guilty in June to charges that he plotted at least 18 attacks in Europe in retaliation for the US and Israel's conflict with Iran.
Source: Google News MT