A Rockwell B1 Lancer heavy bomber departs on October 4 in Fairford, United Kingdom. Photo: David Bown/Getty Images
Three individuals were charged in connection with alleged Iranian-linked terror plots, including a September scheme against a British Royal Air Force Base that housed U.S. military personnel and aircraft, per an indictment unsealed Tuesday.
The indictment alleges that a leader of an Islamic terrorist group attempted to coordinate with his fellow defendants from jail by passing coded messages through third parties.
- The charges include conspiracy to provide material support to a Foreign Terrorist Organization, conspiracy to provide material support for acts of terrorism, attempted acts of terrorism across national boundaries and conspiracy to bomb a place of public use, among others.
Since early in the year, the three men named in the indictment worked to commit terror attacks on behalf of an Iran-aligned terrorist network, the indictment alleges.
- The eight-count superseding indictment names Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, a dual Iranian-Iraqi national; Mohsen Mohajeri, an Iranian national; and Mohammad Ali al-Hassani, an Iraqi national. It highlights nearly 20 attacks and attempted attacks, which included plots against Jewish institutions in Europe and the U.S.
- Al-Saadi was charged in May for working with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Kata’ib Hizballah, both of which the U.S. has designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
What’s inside: Even after al-Saadi was arrested and transferred to U.S. custody, he allegedly passed coded messages to his fellow defendants in the days leading up to an attempted plot targeting the RAF Fairford base in England.
- The U.K. earlier this year allowed the U.S. to use RAF Fairford for limited defensive strikes against Iranian missile capabilities, elevating the base’s position on the IRGC’s radar.
- Al-Hassani and Mohajeri were in Iran at the time, but relied on a network of contacts in the U.K. whom Al-Hassani allegedly paid to prepare by acquiring vans and barrels of fuel and researching chemical accelerants in preparation for the Fairford attack, the indictment says.
- British police arrested five men on suspicion of terrorism near the base back in September.
- Iran , as usual denied any involvement in the suspected plot at the time, Axios previously reported “Today marks a major disruption of an alleged global terrorism conspiracy,” Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for National Security M. Scott Proctor said in a statement.
- AXIOS
