A suspected Iran-backed operative allegedly continued coordinating terrorist plots from inside a U.S. jail, using coded messages to arrange payments to individuals who could carry out attacks, according to a newly unsealed federal indictment. Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, who was arrested earlier this year, allegedly used phone calls with family members in Iraq to communicate with his co-defendants in the days leading up to a suspected September plot targeting RAF Fairford, a British military base that has housed American bombers and troops. The allegations were outlined Tuesday in a superseding indictment charging al-Saadi and two other men with conspiring to carry out nearly 20 attacks targeting Jewish communities in Europe and the United States, as well as the British airbase.
The indictment alleges the three men operated on behalf of an Iran-aligned terrorist network that included the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Kata'ib Hezbollah. While detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, al-Saadi allegedly used coded messages to communicate with co-defendants Mohsen Mohajeri and Mohammad Ali al-Hassani ahead of the suspected RAF Fairford plot, according to the indictment. The incident came to light after five men were detained shortly after midnight on September 27, following reports of three suspicious vans traveling toward the base.
The men were suspected of explosives and terrorism offenses. A sixth suspect, a British-Iranian dual national, was arrested several days later. All six suspects were subsequently released on bail by British authorities.
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said in October that the suspected plot was "highly likely" to have been coordinated in Iran and "almost certainly" directed by the IRGC. The United States subsequently withdrew bombers stationed at the base, redeploying them to their home bases. RAF Fairford, located approximately 100 miles west of London, has served as an important staging location for American bombers during decades of military operations in the Middle East.
FBI Director Kash Patel said the indictment "shows the determination of Iran to commit terrorist attacks in Europe and the U.S." The superseding indictment names three defendants: Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, a dual Iranian-Iraqi national; Mohsen Mohajeri, an Iranian national; and Mohammad Ali al-Hassani, an Iraqi national. Only al-Saadi, who was 32 at the time of his arrest, is currently in U.S. custody. In June, he pleaded not guilty to charges alleging he plotted at least 18 attacks across Europe in retaliation for the U.S. and Israel's war with Iran.
During those proceedings, he described himself as a "prisoner of war." U.S. prosecutors say al-Saadi was a commander of Kata'ib Hezbollah. Both the militia group and the IRGC have been designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the U.S. government. "The threat presented by Iran and Iran-backed terrorist groups to America and our allies is not hypothetical — it is very real," U.S.
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