US charges 3 men with plotting terror attacks, including planned assault on UK airbase

NEW YORK (AP) — Three men were charged by U.S. authorities on Tuesday with plotting a “campaign of terror” of nearly 20 attacks targeting Jewish communities in Europe and the U.S. and the British military base RAF Fairford.

Charges against Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, a dual Iranian-Iraqi national; Mohsen Mohajeri, an Iranian national; and Mohammad Ali al-Hassani, an Iraqi national, were outlined in a superseding indictment unsealed in Manhattan federal court.

U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald in New York said in a news release that al-Saadi, who was arrested in the spring, continued to coordinate with his co-defendants in the days leading up to the attempted September terrorist plot at a British Royal Air Force Base in Fairford, United Kingdom, where U.S. bombers and troops had been stationed.

The new indictment offers fresh insight into an episode that was shrouded in mystery for more than a month after five men were detained after midnight on Sept. 27 on suspected explosives and terrorism offenses after three suspicious vans were spotted traveling toward the base in western England.

The arrests prompted the U.S. military to withdraw its bombers that had been stationed there, and they were redeployed to their home bases in the United States.