Arabic version: الولايات المتحدة تتهم ثلاثة أشخاص في قضية مخطط مزعوم بقاعدة فيرفورد الجوية
According to Al Jazeera, United States prosecutors have charged three men they describe as Iranian-backed operatives over their alleged role in nearly 20 attacks and attempted attacks in the US and Europe, including an alleged plot targeting RAF Fairford in southwest England.
The Department of Justice said the men acted in support of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah. It identified them as Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, Mohsen Mohajeri and Mohammad Ali al-Hassani, who face what authorities called terrorism-related offences. Al-Saadi is in jail in New York, while prosecutors did not disclose the whereabouts of Mohajeri and al-Hassani.
The charges announced on Tuesday focus on RAF Fairford, where US forces and bombers had been stationed. Police were called to the base in September after a local farmer reported seeing men with several white vans engaged in suspicious activity. Six men were arrested and released on bail; two were later re-arrested on suspicion of assisting Iran’s intelligence service and charged under the National Security Act.
A US charging document alleged that al-Hassani, a 35-year-old Iraqi national, directed others to drive vans to the base, some carrying barrels of fuel. Prosecutors said he had paid the group to buy metal objects that could serve as shrapnel and to disguise the vans as fuel delivery vehicles. They alleged that al-Saadi, 32, an Iranian-Iraqi dual national, sent coded messages through phone calls to his mother and sister in Iraq to coordinate with al-Hassani and Mohajeri, a 48-year-old Iranian.
Iran has strongly denied involvement in the Fairford incident, and there was no immediate comment from Tehran on the charges. US authorities first detailed charges against al-Saadi in May. He pleaded not guilty in June, called himself a prisoner of war and has been held without bail since his arrest. The new indictment adds his alleged role in the Fairford plot and charges the other two men.
