The alleged mastermind of an Iranian plot against American troops and aircraft stationed at an airbase in Britain has been charged in New York.
The U.S. Department of Justice has indicted three men, including an alleged terrorist mastermind who was said to have been able to direct an attempted attack against U.S. forces in Britain from a prison cell.
Dual Iranian-Iraqi national Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, who has been in prison in the United States since May, was named as the ringleader of the alleged RAF Fairford attack plot which is understood to have been foiled by the security services in September. While the exact details of the plot remain reasonably obscure, according to information from the U.S. and British governments, there was an attempt to destroy American B-1 bombers at a de-facto U.S. Air Force base in Britain using fake fuel trucks loaded with gasoline.
Also charged are Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) men, the Iranian citizen Mohsen Mohajeri, and Iraqi citizen Mohammad Ali al-Hassani, both of whom are are Iran and who the U.S. say liaised with al-Saadi and others to plan the attack.
Allegedly, al-Saadi was able to coordinate an attempted terrorist attack from a U.S. jail by hiding “coded messages” in telephone calls with his family. The family are then said to have passed these messages onto the IRGC contacts, who then sent instructions to agents in Britain to surveil and make plans for the base assault, which culminated in arrests of five men with the fuel trucks at the perimeter of the facility in September.
The charges between the men, per the DOJ, are two counts of conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organisation, conspiring to provide and providing material support for acts of terrorism, attempted acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries, conspiring to bomb a place of public use, attempted destruction of property by means of fire or explosive, and financing terrorism.
The U.S. government said that in September 2026, al-Saadi”allegedly orchestrated a terrorist plot at a British Royal Air Force Base… [he] relied on a network of contacts in the United Kingdom… [and communicated] from jail by passing coded messages through third parties.”
U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald said of the charges: “these defendants helped orchestrate a campaign of terror on behalf of terrorist organizations affiliated with Iran that targeted Jewish communities in Europe and the United States, and the British military base, RAF Fairford, housing American service members”, and added “The threat presented by Iran and Iran-backed terrorist groups to America and our allies is not hypothetical—it is very real”.
The three men are said to be members of a new Iranian IRGC-linked organisation, the Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya, or the The Islamic Movement of the People of the Right Hand (‘HAYI’). The group claimed responsibility for a string of terror attacks both attempted and realised in Britain and Europe in the Spring, and the DOJ’s press release notes al-Saadi was involved in “planning and promoting approximately 18 terrorist attacks” in March and April of this year.
Of those, it said, “approximately seven of those attacks—the most of any European country—took place in the United Kingdom. The attacks involved arsons, explosives, and in one instance, a near-fatal stabbing in London of two Jewish men, including a dual U.S.-British citizen.”
As previously reported, the attacks linked hitherto to HAYI include includes the Golders Green stabbing in April, the attempted drone attack on Israeli embassy also in April, attacks on Synagogues, and the arson of Jewish charity ambulances. Per the DOJ, some of these attacks were directed in real time from Iran or Iraq by “Facetime” call to the perpetrators, who were walked through their actions in minute detail. Per the statement:
On or about April 17, al-Saadi, al-Hassani, and Mohajeri allegedly directed an individual to carry out one of the European Terrorist Attacks in real time… watching a FaceTime video with the individual who was carrying out the attack… Al-Hassani directed the perpetrators’ actions, including by instructing the individual… to take a lighter and “light one in your hand,” “light it,” and “throw the fourth one.”…
… The next day, on or about April 18, al-Hassani participated in another video call with an individual carrying out an attack on a synagogue in London, with the HAYI logo projected on the background of al-Hassani’s screen. During the video call, al-Hassani directed the individual to “light it up like a Christmas tree.” The person on the video then lit an improvised explosive device and threw it at a building.
The Fairford plot and its subsequent appears to have had a considerable impact on the confidence the United States appears to have in how secure its bases in the United Kingdom are. There was a surge in security at the base around the time of the September arrests, and the bomber wing was later withdrawn, and apparently in a hurry.
This week, that move to disperse U.S. aircraft continued with more American jets moved from their usual bases in Britain over alleged Iran threats.
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