A terrorist commander was accused of planning three attacks across the U.S. and faced terrorism charges on Wednesday.
Mohammad Al-Saadi is accused of attempting to hire someone — who turned out to be an undercover member of law enforcement — to carry out the attacks, which were planned for New York City, Los Angeles and Scottsdale, Arizona. He is expected to appear in a federal court in lower Manhattan on Wednesday for his initial appearance, according to two sources familiar with the charges.
The alleged plot comes more than two months after the U.S. and Israel launched a war against Iran.
Al-Saadi is a commander of Kata’ib Hizballah, a U.S. designated foreign terrorist organization operating in Iraq with ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — which the U.S. has also designated a foreign terrorist group — according to the complaint.
Since the war in Iran, Al-Saadi “has directed attacks on U.S. and Israeli interests “including by killing Americans and Jews,” according to the indictment. Al-Saadi and his associates have planned, coordinated, and claimed responsibility for at least 18 terrorist attacks in Europe, as well as two additional attacks in Canada, the complaint states.
Al-Saadi has also directed others and attempted to coordinate terrorist attacks in the United States, including in New York City, according to the complaint.
He was charged with two counts of conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, two counts of conspiring to provide material support for acts of terrorism, one count of conspiracy to bomb a place of public use and one count of destruction of property by means of fire or explosive.
The New York Police Department confirmed the allegations of a planned terrorist attack in a statement to NBC News.
“Working with our law enforcement partners, we disrupted a plan to attack a Manhattan synagogue, and in partnership with the synagogue’s leadership, ensured its security when the threat was elevated,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in a statement.
“This case puts into stark relief the global threats posed by the Iranian regime and its proxies like Kata’ib Hizballah — Foreign Terrorist Organizations that have repeatedly targeted Jewish communities across Europe and the United States since the war began,” she added.
Al-Saadi, an Iraqi citizen, “has furthered the terrorist goals of that group and the IRGC since at least in or about 2017,” according to the complaint. He has interacted with figures, including Qasem Soleimani, who was assassinated by the U.S. in 2020.
Since the start of the war in Iran on February 28, he has called on others to kill Americans and Israelis, according to the complaint.
“Do not abandon the blood of your Imam of the time, oh Shiites of Iraq. Kill everyone who supports America and Israel,” he wrote on Telegram on the day the war started, according to the complaint. “Do not leave any of them remaining. Civil and military targets, as well as voices of discord, kill them everywhere.”
The complaint states that in additional posts on X, Snapchat and Telegram, Al-Saadi continued to call for attacks on Americans and Israelis.
Al-Saadi was also responsible helping to orchestrate 18 attacks across Europe since the start of the war, including at a synagogue in Liège, Belgium, a Jewish school in Amsterdam, at the Bank of America building in Paris and arson attacks in London. The attacks were carried out “in the name of Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya” – or HAYI – “a component of Kata’ib Hizballah,” the complaint says.
Last month, Al-Saadi tried to hire an undercover law enforcement agent, who was posing as a Mexican cartel member, to set a New York City synagogue and two Jewish centers, one in Los Angeles and one in Scottsdale, on fire, according to the complaint. Al-Saadi offered to pay him $10,000 for committing the attacks, and asked that they be recorded on camera.
On a call on April 1, according to the complaint, Al-Saadi was recorded saying: “war will not end. Either they eradicate us, or we eradicate them.”
Dr. Sajjan Gohel, the international security director of the Asia-Pacific Foundation, said HAYI is the “front used for propaganda and claim-of-responsibility operations, but it remains a vehicle for Iran’s operations.”
“Although this plot has been stopped in the United States, the infrastructure the IRGC has created remains intact,” Gohel added, using an acronym for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. “The worry will be that it demonstrates intent and desire to target Jewish communities globally, and the threat inside Europe remains prevalent.”
