“An Iranian detained in a New York prison directed an attack on a British base.” What is the story?

- US federal prosecutors said, in a new indictment, that a leader in an Iranian-affiliated terrorist group - from a New York prison - helped direct a failed plot to attack the main British air base, Fairford, used by the US military in the context of the conflict with Iran. The man, named Muhammad Daoud Al-Saadi - who holds dual Iranian and Iraqi citizenship - is accused of using encrypted messages via phone calls to his family, to issue instructions to two other people who tried to help carry out the attack on the base, where American B-1 bombers were stationed.

Prosecutors explained that Al-Saadi, who is linked to Kataib Hezbollah, was already in prison when he began coordinating the attack, as he was arrested earlier this year on multiple charges related to his alleged involvement in terrorist plots within the United States and attacks in Europe, and was being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center, a federal prison in Brooklyn, New York. The new indictment, issued by a grand jury in New York on Tuesday, attributes the planning of the attack to elements allegedly affiliated with the Iranian army.

According to the indictment, Al-Saadi coordinated the plot with Mohsen Mohajeri - a member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard - as well as another Iranian named Muhammad Ali Al-Hassani, and the two men were charged alongside Al-Saadi. In September, British police received a report about three suspicious vehicles heading towards the British air base.

Police arrested 7 men on suspicion of involvement in a terrorist plot, but they were later released under strict conditions, after the vehicles were found to contain no explosives. Informed sources told Ofoq News Network that the plan was to use those vehicles - which were loaded with fuel - as vehicle-mounted explosive devices.

A number of these men were rearrested in late October, after British authorities said there was a strong possibility that the Revolutionary Guards were involved in the alleged plot targeting the air base.