U.S. charges three Iranian-backed operatives in plot on British air base

The Justice Department on Tuesday unsealed an eight-count superseding indictment charging three Iranian-backed operatives over nearly 20 attacks and attempted attacks across Europe and the United States, including a September plot at a British air base where American forces were stationed, the department said.

The case widens a prosecution that began in May against Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, a dual Iranian-Iraqi national charged with planning about 18 attacks in Europe and attempting to bomb a synagogue in New York. Prosecutors now allege that al-Saadi kept helping to plan violence while jailed in New York, passing coded messages through relatives to two co-defendants in the days before the base plot.

The indictment names Mohsen Mohajeri, an Iranian national, and Mohammad Ali al-Hassani, an Iraqi national, alongside al-Saadi. It charges all three with supporting Kata'ib Hizballah and Iran's IRGC, both of which the U.S. has designated as foreign terrorist organizations. Al-Saadi is 32, Mohajeri is 48 and al-Hassani is 35, according to the department.

The European attacks were claimed by a group calling itself Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya, which prosecutors describe as a front for Kata'ib Hizballah and other terrorist organizations. Of the 18 attacks it claimed in Europe in the spring of 2026, seven took place in the United Kingdom, the most of any European country. They included arsons and explosives, and one near-fatal stabbing in London of two Jewish men, one of them a dual U.S.-British citizen.

Prosecutors allege the three men directed some of the attacks live. On or about April 17, the indictment says, they watched a FaceTime video of an attack as it was carried out, projected on a large screen with the group's logo behind it, while al-Hassani gave instructions and al-Saadi recorded it. The next day, prosecutors say, al-Hassani was on a video call with a person who threw an improvised explosive device at a synagogue in London.

Al-Saadi was arrested abroad on or about May 1 and moved into U.S. custody. For about four months afterward, no new attacks were attributed to the three men. Then in August, al-Hassani allegedly paid a contact to conduct surveillance of the perimeter of RAF Fairford, the Royal Air Force base in Fairford, England. In September he allegedly paid others to buy vans and barrels of fuel, research chemical accelerants and buy metal objects that could serve as shrapnel. The vans carried custom decals meant to look like those of a fuel delivery business and a swimming pool supply business.

On Sept. 26, al-Hassani allegedly had three vans driven toward the base and stayed in frequent contact with the drivers. At least two of the vans ran into a security roadblock and were not allowed through. Early on Sept. 27, police in the United Kingdom recovered three white vans bearing the fuel delivery logos and arrested the people inside, according to the department.

The new charges lean on al-Saadi's calls from prison. In June and July, prosecutors say, he spoke with his mother and sister about Mohajeri, using aliases for him, and asked whether their old work had been cancelled or put on pause. On or about Sept. 24, three days before the base plot, al-Saadi allegedly asked about al-Hassani and told his family to give him money.

“Anyone who plans a terrorist plot on a military base housing American servicemembers will be prosecuted by the United States government,” said Attorney General Todd Blanche. FBI Director Kash Patel said one of the defendants is behind bars awaiting trial and allegedly sent coded messages to help with future acts of violence.

Jamie McDonald, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said the defendants kept coordinating through coded communications and associates overseas even after a co-conspirator was in federal custody. He added, “The threat presented by Iran and Iran-backed terrorist groups to America and our allies is not hypothetical — it is very real.”

Two counts carry a maximum sentence of life in prison: attempted acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries, which names only al-Saadi, and conspiring to bomb a place of public use, which names all three men. The other counts, including financing terrorism and conspiring to provide material support to each group, carry maximum sentences of 15 to 20 years in prison.

The FBI's New York Joint Terrorism Task Force led the investigation, and prosecutors in Manhattan will try the case with the National Security Division's Counterterrorism Section. A superseding indictment is an allegation, and all three defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty. More court coverage is in the Law Sector.