Federal prosecutors have unsealed charges against three men accused of plotting to attack a British air base that houses American military personnel, using vans loaded with barrels of fuel disguised as commercial delivery vehicles.
The Justice Department’s eight-count superseding indictment names Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, Mohsen Mohajeri and Mohammad Ali Al-Hassani. Prosecutors say the men are tied to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Kata’ib Hizballah, and that their target was RAF Fairford in England, where U.S. military aircraft and personnel are stationed.
Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a news release that the government would not tolerate such plots.
“Anyone who plans a terrorist plot on a military base housing American service members will be prosecuted by the United States government,” Blanche said.
According to the indictment, Al-Hassani directed associates in the United Kingdom to surveil RAF Fairford in August, paying someone to film the base’s perimeter. Associates later acquired three vans and barrels of fuel, researched chemical accelerants, and bought metal objects that could serve as explosive shrapnel. The vans were fitted with commercial decals designed to make them look like vehicles used by fuel delivery and swimming pool supply companies.
Prosecutors say that on Sept. 26, Al-Hassani directed associates to drive the three vans toward the base. At least two vans were stopped by a security roadblock before reaching their destination. British authorities recovered all three vehicles and arrested the occupants the next morning.
Al-Saadi is alleged to have helped coordinate the plot from a New York jail cell, where he was already being held awaiting trial on separate terrorism charges. Prosecutors say he used phone calls with family members in Iraq to pass coded instructions to his co-conspirators. During a call on Sept. 24, he allegedly asked about Al-Hassani and told relatives to “give him [al-Hassani] money so we can do it.”
Prosecutors say the alleged plot follows a string of attacks across Europe in March and April that the defendants helped organize on behalf of an Iran-aligned terrorist network. Those attacks targeted synagogues, Jewish organizations, ambulances and an Israeli embassy, and included the stabbing of two Jewish men in London.
Al-Saadi, a dual Iranian Iraqi national, was arrested abroad in May and transferred into U.S. custody. Prosecutors have previously accused him of helping direct roughly 18 attacks in Europe and of attempting to coordinate an attack on a Manhattan synagogue.
The three men face charges including conspiracy to provide material support to foreign terrorist organizations, financing terrorism and conspiracy to bomb a place of public use. Some of the charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison.
