ADاشتہار / AdvertisementGoogle Ad
US Charges Three Over 20 Terror Plots, RAF Fairford PlanWorld
US prosecutors say three men plotted nearly 20 attacks across Europe and America, including a fuel-van attack on a British airbase housing US forces.
Share:
The United States has charged three men with plotting nearly 20 terrorist attacks across Europe and America, including a foiled plan to drive vans loaded with fuel into a British airbase used by American forces. The Justice Department unsealed an eight-count indictment on Tuesday, naming the men as Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, Mohsen Mohajeri and Mohammad Ali al-Hassani, and accusing them of acting in support of Kataib Hezbollah and Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, both designated as terrorist organisations by Washington.
The most serious allegation concerns RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, a base that houses United States military aircraft and personnel. Prosecutors say al-Hassani, a 35-year-old Iraqi national, directed and paid associates in Britain to prepare the attack from August onwards. They carried out surveillance of the base, bought vans and barrels of fuel, researched chemical accelerants and metal objects that could be used as shrapnel, and fitted the vans with fake logos to make them look like vehicles from a fuel delivery firm and a swimming pool supply business.
ADاشتہار / AdvertisementGoogle Ad
On 26 September, the indictment says, al-Hassani told the drivers to take three vans towards the base. At least two of them were stopped at a security roadblock before they could reach the perimeter. In the early hours of the following morning, British police recovered three white vans carrying barrels of fuel and arrested the people inside them. After the threat, the United States removed its bomber aircraft from RAF Fairford, according to the BBC.
The indictment links the three men to a wider campaign of violence in the spring of this year. Prosecutors say about 18 attacks in Europe were claimed in the name of a front group calling itself Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya, including seven in the United Kingdom. The attacks involved arson and explosives, and one near-fatal stabbing in London of two Jewish men, one of them a dual American-British citizen. Al-Saadi was first charged in May over his alleged role in those attacks and in an attempt to bomb a synagogue in New York.
One striking detail in the case is how the plot was allegedly coordinated. Al-Saadi, 32, has been in federal custody in New York since he was arrested abroad on 1 May and transferred to the United States. Prosecutors say he passed coded messages to his co-defendants through phone calls with his family in Iraq, using words such as work to describe terrorist activity. His co-defendants, Mohajeri, 48, and al-Hassani, are not in custody, according to reports citing people familiar with the case.
Attorney General Todd Blanche said anyone who plans a terrorist plot on a military base housing American service members will be prosecuted by the United States government. FBI Director Kash Patel said the case showed the determination of Iran to commit terrorist attacks in Europe and the United States. The charges include conspiracy to provide material support to terrorist organisations and conspiracy to bomb a place of public use, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. The Iranian embassy in London has rejected the allegations. An indictment is only an allegation, and all three men are presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.
Related Coverage
