US charges three ‘Iranian operatives’ over UK airbase plot

The US Justice Department announced charges against three men on Tuesday, describing them as Iranian operatives linked to a terrorist plot at Britain's RAF Fairford airbase. The men, Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, Mohsen Mohajeri, and Mohammad Ali al-Hassani, are accused of their role in the September incident. Police were alerted to the base in southwest England after a farmer reported suspicious activity involving several white vans.

According to a US charging document, al-Hassani, an Iraqi national, directed others to drive to the base, with some vans carrying barrels of fuel. He allegedly paid the group to purchase metal objects for shrapnel and to disguise the vehicles as fuel delivery services. Al-Saadi, a 32-year-old dual Iranian-Iraqi national already serving a terrorism sentence in New York, is said to have communicated coded messages to al-Hassani and Mohajeri, 48, an Iranian, before the plot.

The US withdrew all its B-1 bombers from RAF Fairford following the arrest. The trio face an eight-count indictment alleging their involvement in various plots supporting Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and pro-Iranian group Kataeb Hezbollah.