U.S. prosecutors have charged three men they describe as Iranian-backed operatives over an alleged campaign of attacks in Europe and the United States, including a plot targeting RAF Fairford in southwest England, Al Jazeera reported.

The U.S. Department of Justice said Tuesday that Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, Mohsen Mohajeri and Mohammad Ali al-Hassani acted in support of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah. Prosecutors linked the men to nearly 20 attacks and attempted attacks and announced what the department called “terrorism-related offenses.”

The Fairford allegations concern a British air base used to station American personnel and bombers. U.S. forces had deployed bombers from the base during the war against Iran.

According to the charging document described by Al Jazeera, al-Hassani, a 35-year-old Iraqi national, directed others to drive vans to the base, with some carrying barrels of fuel. Prosecutors allege he had paid the group to purchase metal objects that could serve as shrapnel and to disguise the vans as fuel-delivery vehicles.

Al-Saadi, 32, who holds Iranian and Iraqi citizenship, allegedly passed coded messages to al-Hassani and Mohajeri, a 48-year-old Iranian, to coordinate the plot. Prosecutors say he communicated through telephone calls to his mother and sister in Iraq.

Al-Saadi is already being held in New York. Authorities did not disclose the whereabouts of the other two defendants.

British police were called to Fairford in September after a local farmer reported suspicious activity involving a group of men and several white vans. 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 United Kingdom’s National Security Act.

Iran has strongly denied involvement in the Fairford incident. There was no immediate Iranian comment on the newly announced U.S. charges, Al Jazeera reported.

U.S. authorities first detailed charges against al-Saadi in May, alleging he directed attacks on American, Israeli and Jewish targets. Those allegations included the nonfatal stabbing of two Jewish men in London and arson attacks elsewhere in Europe.

Al-Saadi pleaded not guilty in June and described himself as a “prisoner of war.” He has remained in custody without bail. Tuesday’s indictment added his alleged role in the Fairford plot and charged the other two men.

Sources