US charges three Iran-backed operatives over nearly 20 attacks and plots

The United States Department of Justice has brought charges against three operatives it says acted for Iran, accusing them of a role in nearly 20 attacks and attempted attacks on Jewish and other targets in the United States and Europe, The Times of Israel reported. The first defendant is named as Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, charged along with Mohsen Mohajeri and Mohammad Ali al-Hassani. According to that report, the department says the activity was carried out in support of Kata'ib Hezbollah and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, both of which Washington has designated as terrorist organisations.

The most striking allegation concerns al-Saadi himself. Israeli broadcaster N12 reported that a new indictment accuses him of guiding, from inside a US prison, a failed attempt to attack a British air base used by the US Air Force. He had already been charged in an American federal court before this case, according to both The Times of Israel and N12.

Who al-Saadi is

The Hebrew-language reports describe al-Saadi as a senior commander in Kata'ib Hezbollah, an Iraqi militia whose name translates roughly as the Hezbollah Brigades. It is a separate organisation from the Lebanese group Hezbollah, though both are aligned with Iran. News.co.il reported that he was detained by the FBI and handed over to the United States in May. N12 said he was arrested in Turkey in May and then extradited. The two accounts give the same month but differ on the details of the arrest, and neither names the date.

Prosecutors, as cited by N12, describe al-Saadi as having been like a son to Qassem Soleimani, the Iranian commander, and say he was meant to be beside Soleimani at the time he was killed. N12 attributed that characterisation to the prosecution rather than presenting it as established.

Joe Truzman, an analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington research institute, wrote on X that al-Saadi is the commander already alleged to have orchestrated attacks earlier this year on Jewish and Western targets in Europe, using a front group called Ashab al-Yamin.

The alleged plot against the air base

The accounts of what was planned at the base differ in their detail. News.co.il said the scheme was meant to strike American forces using explosive drones and car bombs. N12, citing CNN, reported that the plan was to load three commercial vehicles with fuel barrels and turn them into improvised explosive devices. The Times of Israel described it as an attempted attack on a British air base where US forces were stationed.

The reports also do not spell the base's name the same way. The Times of Israel calls it RAF Fairfield, while the Hebrew reports render it in a form that reads as Fairford. Readers should treat the exact name as unconfirmed from this material.

On how a prisoner could take part, N12 reported that, according to the indictment, al-Saadi passed encrypted messages during calls with relatives in Iraq and helped advance the attempted attack. The Times of Israel said he allegedly tried to coordinate activity while held in New York.

The wider wave of attacks on Jewish communities

The Times of Israel reported that the network is alleged to have facilitated a series of attacks on Jewish communities in Europe after the start of the war with Iran. Among the incidents it listed were a knife attack on two Jewish men in London and an arson attack with firebombs on a synagogue in the British capital. Prosecutors also allege a plan to bomb a synagogue in New York.

According to the same report, the defendants are accused of directing attackers over live video calls and then circulating propaganda footage of the attacks. That method, if proven, would mean that the people carrying out an attack in a European city were being guided in real time by handlers elsewhere.

Why the designations matter

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is the branch of Iran's armed forces that answers directly to the country's supreme leader and runs its relationships with allied armed groups across the region. Kata'ib Hezbollah is one of those groups. Because both are on the US list of designated terrorist organisations, providing support to them is itself a federal crime, which is why the case links individual attacks to the two organisations by name.

What the reports do not say

None of the reports states where Mohajeri and al-Hassani are now, whether they are in custody, or what specific role each is alleged to have played. No response from the defendants, their lawyers, Iran or Kata'ib Hezbollah has been reported. The reports do not give a full list of the nearly 20 incidents, and the conflicting spellings of the air base's name and the differing descriptions of the planned weapons have not been resolved. All of the allegations remain charges that have not been tested in court.