Nearly 20 terror attacks: 3 men face charges for plotting, including planned assault on uk airbase

Three defendants named

A superseding indictment unsealed in Manhattan federal court names Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, Mohsen Mohajeri and Mohammad Ali al-Hassani. Authorities describe al-Saadi as a dual Iranian-Iraqi national, Mohajeri as Iranian and al-Hassani as Iraqi.

Only al-Saadi is in custody. He was arrested in the spring and has been held without bail; his lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest charges.

Prosecutors allege the three conspired to use contacts in the United Kingdom to carry out attacks for an Iran-aligned network that included Kata'ib Hizballah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Both groups are designated by the U.S. government as foreign terrorist organizations.

Fairford plot described

The indictment says al-Saadi continued coordinating with his co-defendants shortly before an attempted September plot at RAF Fairford, a British base that has hosted U.S. bombers and troops. U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald said al-Saadi used coded messages from jail to direct relatives to pass money to people who could conduct attacks.

Authorities have not publicly detailed what the planned assault at Fairford would have involved. The article reports that the indictment links the three defendants to the alleged plan, while British authorities had earlier connected the incident to Tehran.

Arrests and bomber withdrawal

Five men were detained after midnight on Sept. 27, following reports of three suspicious vans traveling toward the base in western England. A sixth suspect, a British-Iranian dual national, was arrested several days later; all the men were released on bail.

The arrests prompted the U.S. to move its bombers from RAF Fairford back to their home bases. The base is about 100 miles west of London and has been used by American bombers during decades of Middle East conflicts.

Iran denied involvement, while British authorities linked the incident to Tehran. McDonald said the threat from Iran and Iran-backed groups was real, and Attorney General Todd Blanche said the United States would prosecute anyone planning an attack on a military base housing American service members.