Jailed Iranian suspect charged with plotting RAF Fairford attack
Prosecutors say an operative in New York custody coordinated a September attack on a US bomber base via coded family calls.
By Alyssa Parker ·
Five men were arrested on 27 September in the village of Whelford, near RAF Fairford, after a farmer reported vehicles blocking a road near the base. The new federal indictment identifies the mastermind as Mohammad Dawood al-Saadi, an Iranian and Iraqi national who was already serving time in a New York jail when he allegedly plotted the strike.
The Southern District of New York alleges that al-Saadi used coded messages during phone calls to family members to transmit the plan to two co-conspirators: Mohsen Mohajeri, an operative with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and Mohammad Ali al-Hassani, another Iranian national. The indictment states that al-Saadi sought the attack as retribution for the United States war in Iran.
According to the charges, al-Hassani directed the group to surveil the base and procure specific materials. These included vans, barrels of fuel, and chemical accelerants. The group also researched metallic objects intended to serve as shrapnel in an explosion. The target, RAF Fairford, serves as the European home for US Air Force B-1 bombers, which were used in the recent bombing campaign against Iran.
US Attorney Jamie McDonald described the defendants as orchestrating a campaign of terror on behalf of Iranian-affiliated groups. He noted that the plot targeted Jewish communities in Europe and the United States, as well as the British military base housing American service members. McDonald emphasized that the threat from Iran-backed groups is real and not hypothetical.
Al-Saadi faces this new indictment in addition to prior charges related to 18 terrorist attacks in Europe. He was also previously accused of planning to bomb a synagogue in New York. The government claims the defendants continued coordinating activity through a network of overseas associates even after al-Saadi was placed in federal custody.
The arrest in Whelford followed the farmer’s report of suspicious vans. The five men detained there faced suspicion for explosives and terrorism offences. The indictment links al-Saadi to Kata’ib Hezbollah and the IRGC, framing the Fairford plot as a calculated response to the military presence in the UK.
