Federal prosecutors in New York unsealed an indictment charging three men with orchestrating an Iran-backed campaign of nearly 20 attacks across Europe and the United States, including a September plot targeting a British air base housing American forces.
The court filings name Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, Mohsen Mohajeri, and Mohammed Ali Al-Hassani, alleging they acted on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Kata’ib Hezbollah. According to NPR, the suspects directed operations from thousands of miles away, utilizing digital video calls to oversee arson and explosive plots targeting Jewish communities and military infrastructure.
Among the European targets, the United Kingdom faced the most intense focus, according to NPR. Out of roughly 18 attacks claimed last spring by a front group known as Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Yamin al-Islamiya—which prosecutors identify as a front for Kata’ib Hezbollah—as many as seven occurred in Britain.
These incidents included arson, explosive devices, and a near-fatal stabbing of two Jewish men in London, one of whom held dual U.S. and British citizenship.
Federal authorities detailed how the remote coordination unfolded in real time. In April, the three accused men gathered in a room to watch an attack stream live over Apple’s FaceTime app. Al-Hassani allegedly coached an operative on igniting and hurling incendiary devices while Al-Saadi filmed the assault.
The following day, Al-Hassani guided another operative via video call during an attack on a London synagogue, instructing him to “light it up like a Christmas tree,” according to the indictment cited by NPR.
The conspiracy eventually zeroed in on RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, a forward operating base for U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command. Al-Hassani, operating from Iran, began paying associates in Britain in August to surveil the base perimeter, procure drums of fuel, and gather metal items to use as shrapnel, NPR reported.
Conspirators fitted three vans with false branding for a fuel delivery firm and a pool supply company. On September 26, the vehicles set off toward the installation. British authorities intercepted at least two at a security roadblock, seized all three vehicles early the next morning, and arrested the occupants.
The United States responded by redeploying several long-range bombing aircraft from the facility. According to the indictment, Al-Saadi had been detained abroad in May and transferred to the United States, yet he continued directing the network from his jail cell by using aliases and coded language during phone calls with relatives in Iraq.
Britain’s Ministry of Defence confirmed to Parliament that U.S. forces operate across eleven RAF bases in the country, hosting approximately 12,300 American military and civilian defense personnel.
