Men linked to London synagogue attacks charged over UK airbase plot

US prosecutors allege that the men accused of directing a wave of attacks on Jewish sites in London earlier this year also orchestrated September’s suspected plot against an airbase in England used by US bombers. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The eight-count indictment was announced in Manhattan on Tuesday. It names two men for the first time: Mohsen Mohajeri, 48, an Iranian national prosecutors describe as an operative of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and Mohammed Ali al-Hassani, 35, an Iraqi citizen. They are charged alongside Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, 32, who holds Iraqi and Iranian citizenship. Al-Saadi was charged in May over the attacks in Europe and has been held in New York since then. According to the indictment, Mohajeri and al-Hassani planned attacks on or before 6 April while together in a room in Iraq with a map of London on a computer screen. “We need to get focused on London,” Mohajeri allegedly told al-Hassani. A still from a video of the meeting (pictured above) shows Mohajeri on the right and al-Hassani on the left. A run of six attacks in and around London began about a week later. The attacks were claimed by Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya (HAYI), which prosecutors say was a front for the Iraqi armed group Kataeb Hezbollah. The group claimed about 18 attacks in Europe in the spring. About seven of them took place in the UK, more than in any other European country. They included the near-fatal stabbing of two Jewish men in London on 29 April. On 17 April, all three men allegedly watched and directed a live attack in Europe over FaceTime. The next day, al-Hassani allegedly directed an attack on a London synagogue by video call, telling the attacker to “light it up like a Christmas tree”. The attacker then lit an improvised explosive device and threw it at a building. Britain banned support for HAYI in July. “Anyone who plans a terrorist plot on a military base housing American servicemembers will be prosecuted by the United States government,” US Attorney General Todd Blanche said. Vans disguised as fuel trucks Prosecutors say no further attacks were attributed to the three men for about four months after al-Saadi’s arrest in May. Then, in August, the network turned to RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, which at the time housed US military aircraft and personnel. According to the indictment, al-Hassani paid an associate in the UK on 22 August to watch the base’s perimeter and send him videos of the area. In September, prosecutors say, he paid people to buy vans, fuel barrels and metal objects that could be used as shrapnel. He also paid them to research buying chemical accelerants, including large quantities of potassium chloride. At his urging, the vans were fitted with custom decals so they looked like they belonged to a fuel delivery company and a swimming pool supplies business. On 26 September, al-Hassani allegedly directed the drivers of three vans, some of which were carrying fuel, towards the base and stayed in regular contact with them. At least two of the vans were stopped at a security roadblock near the perimeter and not allowed through. UK authorities found the three white vans early the next morning and arrested the men inside. A local farmer had reported a group of men behaving “suspiciously” around the vehicles. Days later, the US withdrew all of its B-1 bombers from Fairford. Prosecutors say Mohajeri and al-Hassani were both in Iran when the plot took place. They have not said where the two men are now. Calls from jail Prosecutors say al-Saadi tried to help coordinate the plot from his cell. In June and July, he allegedly used jail phone calls with his mother and sister in Iraq to pass messages about “work”, which prosecutors say was his code word for terrorist activity. In those calls, Mohajeri was referred to by aliases. When al-Saadi asked whether “all our old work” had been called off, his sister told him it “isn’t cancelled”. On 24 September, al-Saadi allegedly asked how “Ali” was doing and told his family to give al-Hassani money “so we can do it”. Two days later, the vans were driven towards Fairford. When he was first charged in May, al-Saadi was accused of directing attacks on US and Israeli interests and urging others to kill Americans and Jews in retaliation for the US-Israeli war against Iran. US authorities have also linked the network to arson attacks on synagogues, Jewish schools and Israeli-owned businesses in Amsterdam in the Netherlands, Munich in Germany and other cities. Al-Saadi is also accused of trying to bomb a synagogue in Manhattan. “The threat presented by Iran and Iran-backed terrorist groups to America and our allies is not hypothetical – it is very real,” said Jamie McDonald, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York. All three men are charged with conspiring to provide material support to Kataeb Hezbollah and the IRGC, conspiring to provide and providing material support for acts of terrorism, conspiring to bomb a place of public use, and financing terrorism. Al-Saadi is also charged with attempted acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries and attempting to destroy property by fire or explosive. He and the other two defendants each face a maximum sentence of life in prison. In the UK, two British men were charged with national security offences over the Fairford incident last month. One is accused of assisting a foreign intelligence service, thought to be Iran’s. The other is accused of entering a prohibited place for a purpose “prejudicial” to the UK. British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said the Fairford activity was likely coordinated from Iran. Tehran has denied any involvement and warned that such claims would “fuel Iranophobia propaganda”. On Tuesday, flight-tracking data showed that the US military had moved at least 12 aircraft out of RAF Mildenhall, another base in England. The Wall Street Journal reported that the move followed a threat from Iran.