“Orders to terrorize a U.S. military base in England while in prison”… US indicts pro-Iranian militia leaders

A pro-Iranian Iraqi militia leader imprisoned in a U.S. detention center was additionally indicted on charges of ordering a terrorist attack against a British air force base where U.S. bombers were stationed.

According to the Associated Press on the 10th (local time), federal prosecutors in New York indicted three people, including Muhammad Bakir Saad Daoud Al-Saadi, a dual citizen of Iran and Iraq, on charges of plotting the attack on Britain's Fairford Air Force Base and at least 18 terrorist attacks targeting Jews in Europe and the United States.

Al-Saadi is designated as the commander of Kataib Hezbollah, an Iraqi armed group linked to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

He was arrested last spring on charges of conspiracy to commit terrorism and is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Al-Sadi is accused of using phone or video calls with his family at the detention center to deliver attack instructions to his accomplices.

The prosecution explains that he used passwords to avoid surveillance by the authorities, such as referring to terrorist attacks as 'work'.

According to the indictment, in a phone call with his sister in Iraq last July, Al-Sadi asked, "How are things going with what we used to do," and checked whether the plan had been canceled.

Afterwards, in a phone call on September 24, it was reported that he gave coded instructions to the effect of 'deliver money to an accomplice to carry out an attack.'

Three days after this call, the accomplices attempted an attack on the Fairford base.

At the time, British police arrested six people on terrorism charges after spotting three suspicious vehicles moving toward the base.

British authorities judged that it was highly likely that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard was involved in this incident.

Iran denied the allegations of involvement, but the United States returned the B-1 bombers deployed to the Fairford base to the mainland after the incident.

Fairford Base, about 160km west of London, has been used by strategic bombers used by the U.S. military in Middle East operations.

Along with al-Saadi, prosecutors indicted Iranian national Mohsen Mohajeri and Iraqi national Muhammad Ali al-Hasani. However, the two people have not been arrested at this time.

Prosecutors believe that they plotted a terrorist attack using their connections in the UK.

Al-Saadi and three others are also suspected of being involved in terrorism targeting Jewish communities in Europe and the United States.

According to prosecutors, they ordered an arson attack on a Jewish charity in London last April and also ordered an attack on a synagogue in London.