Overview
- The U.S. Department of Justice unsealed an eight‑count superseding indictment on Tuesday, Nov. 10, charging Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al‑Saadi, Mohsen Mohajeri and Mohammad Ali al‑Hassani with plotting nearly 18–20 attacks including an attempted assault on RAF Fairford in late September.
- Prosecutors say al‑Saadi, already held in a federal jail in New York, used coded phone calls to family members to pass instructions to co‑conspirators overseas and is accused of coordinating the Fairford operation from detention.
- The indictment lays out operational steps attributed to the plotters: surveillance of the Gloucestershire base, obtaining three vans loaded with barrels of fuel, researching chemical accelerants, buying metal to act as shrapnel and disguising vehicles with commercial decals.
- British police stopped and seized the three vans on Sept. 26–27 and arrested several men who were later released on strict bail conditions, and U.S. forces moved bomber and other aircraft from RAF Fairford and RAF Mildenhall for force‑protection reasons.
- The charges allege the defendants acted for Iran‑aligned groups including the IRGC and Kata'ib Hizballah, carry potential life sentences for some counts and raise legal and diplomatic questions about converting intelligence into court evidence and protecting allied forces and civilian communities.