DOJ Indicts 3 Iran-Backed Suspects Over Fuel-Van Plot at UK Air Base

3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Nov 10

An eight-count U.S. indictment unsealed Tuesday accuses three Iran-backed suspects of plotting to attack RAF Fairford, a British base housing American troops and aircraft, with three vans loaded with fuel barrels.
Prosecutors say the men, tied to Iran's IRGC and Kata'ib Hizballah, ordered surveillance of the base in August, bought accelerants and shrapnel materials, and disguised the vans as commercial delivery vehicles.
On Sept. 26, associates allegedly drove the vans toward the base, but at least two hit a security roadblock; British authorities recovered all three vehicles and arrested the occupants the next morning.
The DOJ says Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi helped coordinate the operation from a New York jail through coded family calls, while the defendants also helped organize roughly 18 earlier attacks across Europe.
British prosecutors separately charged two men under the National Security Act after the RAF Fairford incident, which had already prompted the withdrawal of about a dozen U.S. B-1 bombers from the base.