United States prosecutors have charged three men accused of working for an Iran-backed network that plotted nearly 20 attacks on Jewish communities in Europe and the United States, including a planned assault on a British airbase used by American bombers. The charges were set out in an eight-count superseding indictment unsealed on Tuesday in Manhattan federal court, in a case that sheds new light on a security scare at RAF Fairford that had been shrouded in mystery for more than a month.
The three men named in the indictment are Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, a dual Iranian-Iraqi national; Mohsen Mohajeri, an Iranian national; and Mohammad Ali al-Hassani, an Iraqi national. Prosecutors say they conspired to commit terrorist attacks in Europe and the United States on behalf of a network linked to Kata'ib Hizballah and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), both designated as foreign terrorist organisations by the United States. Only al-Saadi is in custody; the other two are believed to be in Iran.
According to the US Department of Justice, al-Saadi was first charged in May for working on behalf of the IRGC and Kata'ib Hizballah and for involvement in planning and promoting about 18 terrorist attacks in Europe, as well as attempting to bomb a synagogue in New York. The new indictment alleges that, even after his arrest, he continued to coordinate with his co-defendants from inside a New York prison, using coded messages in phone calls to relatives in Iraq to pass instructions.
The most recent plot described in the indictment targeted RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, about 160 kilometres west of London, which has hosted American bombers during decades of conflicts in the Middle East. Prosecutors say al-Hassani orchestrated the plot in September, relying on contacts in the United Kingdom to carry out surveillance of the base, procure vans and barrels of fuel, research chemical accelerants and buy metallic objects to be used as explosive shrapnel. Al-Saadi, despite being held in solitary confinement in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, allegedly gave final approval for the attack.
The episode came to public attention on 27 September, when five men were detained after midnight on suspected explosives and terrorism offences after three suspicious vans were spotted travelling towards the base in western England. A sixth suspect, a British-Iranian dual national, was arrested several days later. The United States subsequently removed all of its bombers from the base following the new threat, and the case had remained largely unexplained until Tuesday's indictment.
Prosecutors say the three men helped to orchestrate 18 terrorist attacks in Europe in the spring of 2026, carried out in retaliation for the war the United States and Israel waged against Iran in February. A front group calling itself Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya claimed responsibility for the attacks, seven of which took place in the United Kingdom. The attacks involved arson and explosives, and in one instance a near-fatal stabbing in London of two Jewish men, including a dual US-British citizen. The group also allegedly attempted to burn down the Bank of New York Mellon in Amsterdam.
US Attorney Jamie McDonald in New York said al-Saadi, who was arrested in Turkey in the spring and transferred to the United States, had continued to coordinate with his co-defendants in the days leading up to the attempted September plot at RAF Fairford. Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement: "Anyone who plans a terrorist plot on a military base housing American servicemembers will be prosecuted by the United States government." Al-Saadi pleaded not guilty in June to the earlier charges.
The case was investigated by the FBI's New York Joint Terrorism Task Force, working with dozens of federal, state and local agencies. Prosecutors said the indictment offers fresh insight into an episode that had puzzled British police and the public alike, and into a wider campaign that American officials say was directed from Tehran. The investigation remains open, and it is not yet clear whether Mohajeri and al-Hassani will ever face trial in the United States, given that both are believed to be in Iran.
The charges land at a sensitive moment in the confrontation between the United States and Iran. The US administration has said the war in Iran is effectively over militarily but has kept a naval blockade in place, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said negotiations with Tehran have stalled. The indictment is likely to harden the administration's position and to add to the pressure on Britain, where the RAF Fairford scare and a separate espionage arrest this week have put the security of American forces stationed in the country under fresh scrutiny.
For the families of the victims of the spring attacks, the indictment may bring some measure of clarity after months of uncertainty. British police have said the September incident at RAF Fairford is not linked to any other ongoing counter-terrorism investigation, and the Metropolitan Police have stressed that the case against the three men is a matter for the American courts. What happens next will depend on whether the two men still at large can be brought to the United States — and on what further evidence emerges about a network that, according to prosecutors, planned its attacks from behind bars as well as from abroad.
