RAF Fairford plot: three charged over alleged Iran-linked attacks

US prosecutors unsealed an eight-count superseding indictment on Tuesday, November 10, 2026, charging three men over an alleged Iran-linked campaign of nearly 20 attacks and attempted attacks in Europe and the United States. Among the alleged targets was Royal Air Force Fairford in England, where US military personnel and aircraft were stationed during a planned September 2026 attack.

The defendants are Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, a dual Iranian-Iraqi national already in federal custody in New York; Mohsen Mohajeri, an Iranian national described as an alleged IRGC operative; and Mohammad Ali al-Hassani, an Iraqi national. Only al-Saadi is in custody. Prosecutors did not disclose the whereabouts of the other two.

According to the indictment, al-Hassani organized the Fairford plot from Iran and paid associates in Britain to prepare for it, working with Mohajeri. Al-Saadi allegedly tried to coordinate with both from federal custody, passing coded messages through relatives in Iraq.

The Justice Department said the men acted in support of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Iraq's Kataib Hezbollah, and in the name of Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya. The charges follow a September 27, 2026 incident near RAF Fairford in which men were detained on suspected explosives and terrorism offenses. British police later rearrested two men on suspicion of assisting Iran, and the US removed its bombers from the base. Iran has denied involvement.

The case alleges a network with reach across multiple European cities and the US, targeting Jewish communities and a British base used by US forces. It also raises a narrower operational question: how a man already jailed on terrorism charges in New York was allegedly able to keep coordinating with operatives abroad.