US charges three Iran-backed men over alleged plot against RAF Fairford base

The US Justice Department announced charges on Tuesday against three men it describes as Iran-backed operatives, over an alleged plot to carry out a terrorist attack at RAF Fairford. The Royal Air Force base in southwest England hosts US troops.

The men are Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, 32, a dual Iranian-Iraqi national; Mohsen Mohajeri, 48, an Iranian national; and Mohammad Ali al-Hassani, 35, an Iraqi national. They face an eight-count superseding indictment made public on Tuesday.

According to the Justice Department, Al-Saadi passed coded messages through third parties to the other two to coordinate the plan. Al-Saadi was first indicted in May on federal conspiracy charges of providing material support to Iran-backed terrorist organisations. He has been in US custody since May and is held in New York.

Prosecutors allege that from August Al-Saadi directed and paid associates in the UK to prepare the attack, including surveillance of the base. They say he paid people to arrange vans and barrels of fuel, research chemical accelerants and buy metal to be used as shrapnel. The vans were to carry decals disguising them as a fuel delivery or pool supply business.

The indictment alleges al-Hassani directed three individuals to drive the vans to the base on 26 September. Two of the vans met security checkpoints and could not continue on their intended route. UK law enforcement recovered three vans and arrested the drivers, according to federal prosecutors. Gulf News reported that police were called after a local farmer reported men with white vans acting suspiciously.

The three are charged with conspiring to provide material support to Kataeb Hezbollah and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, conspiring to commit acts of terrorism, and conspiring to bomb a place of public use. Al-Saadi also faces charges of attempted terrorism transcending national boundaries and attempted destruction of property by fire or explosive.

Prosecutors also accuse Al-Saadi and associates of planning or claiming at least 18 attacks in Europe and two in Canada since March, in retaliation for US and Israeli military action in Iran. Gulf News cited a stabbing of two Jewish men in London and arson attacks on synagogues, Israeli businesses and Jewish schools in several European cities. Prosecutors did not disclose where Al-Hassani and Mohajeri are.

Attorney General Todd Blanche said: "Anyone who plans a terrorist plot on a military base housing American servicemembers will be prosecuted by the United States government." Gulf News reported that UK police last month charged two British men with national security offences linked to the incident, and that the US withdrew its B-1 bombers from the base days afterwards.