US Indicts 3 Iranian Operatives Over Alleged RAF Fairford Bombing Plot and 20 Attacks

WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors charged three operatives backed by Tehran with orchestrating an attempted bombing assault against Britain's RAF Fairford airbase, unsealing an eight-count indictment that links the network to at least 20 attacks across the West.

A local farmer uncovered the operation in September after spotting white delivery vans idling near the perimeter fence in southwest England. The vehicles carried fuel drums and shrapnel. Days later, the United States military pulled its entire fleet of B-1 heavy bombers from the Gloucestershire airfield.

The conspiracy ran through three men tied to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Kataeb Hezbollah militia, according to charging documents released Tuesday by the US Department of Justice. Dual Iranian-Iraqi citizen Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, 32, allegedly coordinated logistics from a New York jail cell using coded messages. Mohammad Ali al-Hassani, a 35-year-old Iraqi national, directed operatives on the ground to disguise the vehicles as commercial fuel delivery trucks. Mohsen Mohajeri, 48, an Iranian national, helped coordinate the assault plan. Prosecutors declined to disclose the current whereabouts of al-Hassani and Mohajeri.

Security cracked quickly. A vigilant farmer reported the convoy to local police after noticing irregular movements along the perimeter. Investigators discovered that al-Hassani had wired funds to purchase metallic projectiles intended to maximize shrapnel damage upon ignition.

The Transnational Strike Network

The targeted airfield serves as a primary staging hub for American military missions directed against Iranian assets. Yet the Fairford plot represents only a fraction of the syndicate's operational footprint.

Federal authorities initially detained al-Saadi in May, accusing him of directing a violent cross-border campaign against American and Israeli targets in retaliation for the US-Israeli conflict with Iran. Investigators tied the network to at least 18 terror strikes across Europe and two in Canada. These operations included the April non-fatal stabbing of two Jewish men in London, alongside arson strikes against synagogues, Jewish schools, and commercial properties in Munich and Amsterdam.

The indictment levies charges of conspiracy to provide material support to foreign terrorist organizations, conspiring to bomb a place of public use, and providing material support for acts of terrorism. Al-Saadi faces separate charges of attempted cross-border terrorism and attempted destruction of property using explosives.

British Prosecutions and Strategic Asset Redeployments

British counter-terrorism police have pursued parallel actions on home soil. Authorities in the United Kingdom charged two British men last month in connection with the Fairford breach. One suspect faces prosecution for assisting a foreign intelligence service linked to Tehran. The second faces charges for unlawful entry into a prohibited military site for purposes deemed prejudicial to national security.

Fallout from the security breach rippled rapidly through Western military commands. Aviation tracking data recorded the departure of at least a dozen American military aircraft from a second British installation, RAF Mildenhall, following specific threat warnings originating from Tehran.

Federal judicial proceedings against al-Saadi will advance in the US District Court in New York, while international law enforcement agencies intensify tracking operations to locate Mohajeri and al-Hassani under active federal arrest warrants.