US Prosecutors Indict Three Men in Plot to Strike UK Air Base
American authorities have charged three individuals with coordinating attacks across the US and Europe, including a scheme targeting RAF Fairford in support of Iranian-backed groups.
By Hiroshi Ferrari ·
The United States Department of Justice announced on Tuesday that it has formally charged three men with terrorism related offenses. Prosecutors describe the defendants as operatives acting in support of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran and the Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah. The indictment alleges that the trio played key roles in nearly twenty attacks and attempted attacks spanning the United States and Europe.
The specific individuals named in the charges are Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, Mohsen Mohajeri, and Mohammad Ali al-Hassani. Al-Saadi, who is currently detained in New York, faces multiple counts. The department did not disclose the current locations of Mohajeri and al-Hassani. The legal filing details how the men allegedly coordinated a campaign of terror targeting Jewish communities in both nations as well as a specific British military installation.
A central focus of the new charges is the plot against RAF Fairford in southwest England. The base had hosted US forces and bombers used in the American war against Iran. In September, local police responded to reports from a farmer who observed a group of men with several white vans engaging in suspicious activity near the site. Six men were initially arrested in connection with that incident, though all were released on bail. Two of them were later re-arrested on suspicion of assisting Iran intelligence and charged under the National Security Act.
Prosecutors stated that al-Hassani, a 35-year-old Iraqi national, directed the logistics of the Fairford operation. The charging document claims he instructed others to drive vans to the base, some of which carried barrels of fuel. He allegedly paid the group to purchase metal objects that could be used as shrapnel and to disguise the vehicles as fuel delivery trucks. Iran has strongly denied any involvement in the incident, and the US military withdrew its B-1 bombers from Fairford days after the event.
The role of al-Saadi, a 32-year-old holding dual Iranian and Iraqi citizenship, was described as that of a coordinator. Prosecutors said he passed coded messages to al-Hassani and Mohajeri, a 48-year-old Iranian, to organize the plot. These communications were allegedly conducted via phone calls to his mother and sister in Iraq, using specific coded language to maintain secrecy.
Manhattan US Attorney Jamie McDonald characterized the defendants as having orchestrated a campaign of terror on behalf of organizations affiliated with Iran. He noted that the threat posed by Iran and its allies to America and its partners is very real and not hypothetical. There was no immediate comment from Iran regarding the new charges announced this week.
These new indictments expand on previous charges detailed by US authorities in May. At that time, al-Saadi was accused of directing attacks on US, Israeli, and Jewish targets in retaliation for the US-Israel war on Iran. Those earlier counts included the nonfatal stabbing of two Jewish men in London in April, as well as arson attacks on synagogues, Israeli businesses, and Jewish schools in other parts of Europe.
Al-Saadi has been in US custody since his arrest in May. In June, he pleaded not guilty to the initial charges and described himself as a prisoner of war. He has remained in detention without bail since then. The new indictment adds the alleged Fairford plot to his case list and formally charges the other two men involved in the broader network.
In related developments, flight tracking data indicated on Tuesday that the US military removed at least a dozen aircraft from RAF Mildenhall, a second air base in the UK. The Wall Street Journal reported that this withdrawal followed a threat from Iran, marking a continued adjustment of American military posture in the region.
