Terror Plot Targeting US Troops Allegedly Directed From Behind Bars

Résumé détaillé

An Iran-backed operative allegedly used coded messages to help plan attacks, including one targeting a British military base.

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.

“Anyone who plans a terrorist plot on a military base housing American servicemembers will be prosecuted by the United States government,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement Tuesday.

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…

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