US charges three ‘Iranian operatives’ over UK airbase plot

The US Department of Justice on Tuesday announced charges against three men it described as “Iranian operatives,” including one already in jail, over their role in an alleged terrorist plot at Britain’s RAF Fairford airbase.

Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, Mohsen Mohajeri and Mohammad Ali al-Hassani allegedly helped plan and direct the September incident at the base, which has been used by the US military in its operations against Iran.

Police were called to the Fairford site in southwest England, after a local farmer reported seeing a group of men with several white vans engaged in “suspicious” activity.

A B1 bomber prepares to take off as police officers guard a checkpoint near RAF Fairford air base in Fairford, England, on Sept. 29.

Photo: AP

A US charging document states that al-Hassani, a 35-year-old Iraqi national, directed unnamed people to drive to the base in the vans, some of which contained barrels of fuel.

It said that he earlier paid the group to buy metallic objects that could be used as shrapnel, and to disguise the vehicles as being engaged in fuel delivery services.

Al-Saadi, 32, a dual Iranian-Iraqi national already jailed in New York on terrorism charges, allegedly passed coded messages to al-Hassani and Mohajeri, 48, an Iranian national, to coordinate ahead of the plot.

Days after the incident, the US withdrew all its B-1 bombers from the base.

“Anyone who plans a terrorist plot on a military base housing American servicemembers will be prosecuted by the United States government,” US Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement on Tuesday.

The trio were charged in an eight-count indictment that alleges their involvement in several other plots in support of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and pro-Iranian group Kataeb Hezbollah.