Iraqi man charged in US for plotting attacks on Jewish targets for Iran

The US Justice Department announces the arrest of an Iraqi national for terrorism on behalf of Iran.

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

Al-Saadi, 32, was extradited to the US from abroad and appears in a federal court in New York City.

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

Attacks linked to al-Saadi include arson against a synagogue in North Macedonia and the stabbing of two Jewish men last month in London.

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

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.

The Justice Department does not name the specific targets.

Al-Saadi is charged with six counts of terrorism-related offenses.

The Community Security Initiative, a group that coordinates security for Jewish institutions in the New York region, says 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.