Three operatives linked to the Iranian government have been charged with plotting attacks against US military aircraft stationed at the Royal Air Force Fairford base in the United Kingdom. According to a new federal indictment, one of the suspects orchestrated the operation from inside an American prison using coded messages.
As reported by CNN and the New York Post, the central defendant, Mohammad Baqir Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, an Iranian-Iraqi dual citizen, was arrested in Turkey in May and subsequently extradited to the United States over charges tied to nearly 20 other terror plots across Europe.
According to the indictment filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, Al-Saadi conspired while in detention with two Iran-based co-defendants, Mohsen Mohajer and Mohammad Al-Hassani, to target US military planes at RAF Fairford.
Federal prosecutors stated that Al-Saadi relayed coded communications to his associates through phone calls placed to his mother and sister in Iraq. In one recorded call, Al-Saadi asked whether previous plans had been canceled, to which his sister answered that they were not.
The indictment further reveals that in August, Al-Hassani issued instructions to contacts in Britain and paid them to conduct reconnaissance, monitor the Fairford airbase, and organize initial logistics.
Prosecutors also noted that Al-Saadi had a history of close cooperation with Qassem Soleimani, the former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force, and maintained contact with the Iranian leadership prior to his arrest.
Source: CNN and New York Post
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