Indictment says coded calls directed co-conspirators to buy large amounts of chemicals

Tasking allegedly included RAF Fairford surveillance and procurement of vans and fuel

A new federal indictment alleges that Mohammad Dawood al-Saadi, a dual Iranian and Iraqi national already jailed in New York, directed two co-conspirators — through coded messages in calls to his family — to buy large quantities of chemicals that could be used as explosives in an attack on RAF Fairford in September. US federal prosecutors said al-Saadi, an Iranian operative, was responsible for the foiled attack on the UK air force base, where American B-1 bombers were stationed.

The indictment alleged that al-Saadi was already imprisoned when he began planning the attack, and that he transmitted his plans by using coded messages in calls to his family to pass on to Mohsen Mohajeri, an operative of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and to another Iranian, Mohammad Ali al-Hassani.

Al-Hassani then tasked others with surveilling the base and with procuring vans and barrels of fuel, and with researching the purchase of chemical accelerants and metallic objects to be used as shrapnel, the indictment claimed.

Al-Saadi, who was accused of being associated with Kata’ib Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was said to have planned the attack as retribution for the US war in Iran.

Al-Saadi had already been charged for his alleged links to 18 terrorist attacks in Europe and for allegedly planning to bomb a synagogue in New York, according to a statement by the Southern District of New York.

Five men from London were arrested in the village of Whelford, near RAF Fairford, on September 27 on suspicion of explosives and terrorism offences, after a farmer reported vans blocking a road near the base while she was on her way back from a party.

RAF Fairford is the European home for US air force bombers and was used by the US during its bombing campaign against Iran. In July, the IRGC issued a statement noting RAF Fairford’s use by US bombers and saying any bases used by the US to attack Iran, including Fairford, were “legitimate targets.”

“As alleged, 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,” said the US attorney Jamie McDonald. “Even after one of their co-conspirators was arrested and placed in federal custody, the defendants allegedly continued coordinating terrorist activity through coded communications and a network of associates overseas.”

“The threat presented by Iran and Iran-backed terrorist groups to America and our allies is not hypothetical – it is very real,” he added.