Iraqi militia commander charged in US for plotting attacks on Jewish targets for Iran

US prosecutors say Mohammad Al-Saadi, a Kataeb Hezbollah member and IRGC operative, coordinated recent attacks in Western countries claimed by Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya

The US Justice Department on Friday announced the arrest of a senior Iraqi militia commander for terrorism against Jewish targets on behalf of Iran since the outbreak of the recent war with the United States and Israel.

Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, a member of the Kataeb Hezbollah terrorist group and an operative of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, plotted close to 20 attacks in the US, Europe and Canada, prosecutors said.

According to the complaint, Al-Saadi and unnamed associates planned, coordinated and claimed responsibility for the attacks in the name of Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya, a component of Kataeb Hezbollah, since late February.

Al-Saadi, 32, was extradited to the US from abroad and appeared in a federal court in New York City, where he smiled throughout his initial appearance but did not speak.

He allegedly planned attacks on “US and Israeli interests and to kill Americans and Jews in the US and abroad,” said Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche.

Attacks linked to al-Saadi include arson against a synagogue in North Macedonia, the stabbing of two Jewish men last month in London, the bombing of a Bank of New York Mellon building in Amsterdam in mid-March and a thwarted bomb attack on a Bank of America office in Paris on March 28, the complaint said. Teenage suspects were previously arrested in both cases.

The Amsterdam attack caused a fire and significant damage to the building, but no injuries, according to local media reports. It followed an explosion outside a Jewish school in Amsterdam, which Al-Saadi celebrated on Snapchat with an Ashab al-Yamin-branded video showing the blast and the assailants fleeing on a motorcycle, the criminal complaint said.

In Paris, police found a homemade bomb consisting of a gasoline-filled container taped to a powerful firework. Forensic experts said the device contained 650 grams (about 23 ounces) of explosives and that it could have produced a large fireball and ignited a significant blaze.

This month and last month, Al-Saadi allegedly attempted terror attacks against Jewish institutions in New York, the Justice Department said.

In communication with an undercover officer, he shared photos of a prominent Jewish synagogue in New York, and two Jewish institutions in California and Arizona, directing the officer to attack the targets. A warrant for his arrest was issued after he allegedly gave the officer a $3,000 down payment to conduct the New York Attack.

The Justice Department did not name the specific targets. The Community Security Initiative, a group that coordinates security for Jewish institutions in the New York region, said in a bulletin that it has been in contact since last month with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force about the plot against the New York synagogue.

Al-Saadi was charged with six counts of terrorism-related offenses, including providing material support to Kataeb Hezbollah and the IRGC, conspiring and providing material support for acts of terrorism and conspiring to bomb a place of public use. If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison.

FBI Director Kash Patel described Al-Saadi as a “high-value target responsible for mass global terrorism” and said his arrest was the product of “a righteous mission executed brilliantly” by the agency’s agents and law enforcement partners.

New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, whose officers investigated Al-Saadi as part of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, said the case “puts into stark relief the global threats posed by the Iranian regime and its proxies like Kataeb Hezbollah.”

Through his lawyer, he called himself a political prisoner and a prisoner of war and said the US was persecuting him for his relationship with Qassem Soleimani, the IRGC general who was killed in Baghdad by a US drone strike in 2020. In his role as head of the Quds Force, the IRGC’s overseas branch, Soleimani was responsible for backing Iranian proxies across the region and plotting overseas attacks.

Al-Saadi was not required to enter a plea. He will remain jailed but could request bail.

His lawyer, Andrew Dalack, said Al-Saadi was arrested in Turkey and turned over to US authorities. In his statement, Patel thanked US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack, calling him “instrumental in bringing this successful mission home to the United States.”

Al-Saadi has been kept in solitary confinement since he arrived at a federal jail in Brooklyn on Thursday night, Dalack said, adding that such treatment was “unusual given the nature of charges in the complaint.”

Times of Israel contributed to this report.