US Indicts Three Alleged Iranian Operatives Over RAF Fairford Plot

The US Justice Department has charged three men it describes as Iran-backed operatives over an alleged RAF Fairford plot targeting a British air base where American troops are stationed, officials announced on Tuesday (Nov 10).

The men are Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, 32, a dual Iranian-Iraqi national; Mohsen Mohajeri, 48, an Iranian national; and Mohammad Ali al-Hassani, 35, an Iraqi national, according to the charging papers as reported by AFP.

Al-Saadi was first indicted in May on federal charges of conspiring to provide material support to Iran-backed groups, including Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Kata’ib Hizballah. He now faces an eight-count superseding indictment made public on Tuesday and remains in federal custody in New York. Two sources told CBS News that Mohajeri and al-Hassani are not in custody.

Vans Allegedly Loaded With Fuel

Federal prosecutors allege that from August, Al-Saadi directed and paid associates in the United Kingdom to prepare an attack on RAF Fairford, including having one person carry out surveillance of the base. He allegedly later paid several people to organise vans and barrels of fuel, research chemical accelerants and buy metal to be used as shrapnel.

Under the alleged plan, three people would drive the fuel-filled vans to the base, where they would explode. Prosecutors say Al-Saadi told them to mark the vans with custom decals so they looked like a fuel delivery or pool supply business.

The indictment alleges that al-Hassani directed three people to drive the vans to the base on Sept 26. Two of the vans ran into security checkpoints and could not continue on their route. UK authorities later recovered three vans bearing fuel delivery decals and arrested the drivers, prosecutors said.

Coded Messages Through Family

Prosecutors allege Al-Saadi plotted with the other two men by passing coded messages through third parties, including members of his family. In a July phone call, he allegedly asked his sister to pass messages to Mohajeri about “work”, which prosecutors say referred to terrorist activity.

On Sept 24, he allegedly asked about al-Hassani and told his family to give him money so the attack could go ahead, according to the indictment.

RAF Fairford Plot Part of Wider Case

Prosecutors had earlier accused Al-Saadi of plotting attacks in the US, including at a prominent Jewish institution in New York, and of involvement in about 18 reported attacks in Europe and two in Canada against US and Israeli interests since March.

Police were called to the Fairford site in southwest England in September after a local farmer reported a group of men with several white vans acting suspiciously. The United States withdrew all its B-1 bombers from the base days later, and UK police charged two British men last month with national security offences linked to the incident, AFP reported. Iran has strongly denied any involvement, the BBC reported.

Attorney General Todd Blanche said anyone planning a terrorist plot on a base housing American service members “will be prosecuted by the United States government”.

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UK Charges Two Men Over RAF Fairford Airbase Incident