An Iraqi man was charged in New York on Friday with helping carry out attacks targeting US interests, including an alleged plan to bomb a synagogue in New York City and the European offices of two American banks.
Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al Saadi was accused in a criminal complaint unsealed in Manhattan of orchestrating plans for at least 20 attacks across Europe and Canada since late February and conspiring to provide material support to Kataib Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militia group designated by the US as a terrorist organisation.
“Al Saadi attempted to disrupt American society through intimidation and violence,” Manhattan US Attorney Jay Clayton said in a statement.
“Those who engage in or support terrorism against Americans and on us soil should take note: the whole of the federal government is committed to dismantling terrorist organisations.”
Prosecutors said Mr Al Saadi was arrested on Thursday after arriving in New York.
His lawyer, Andrew Dalack, told the court that Turkish authorities detained Mr Al Saadi in Istanbul before transferring him to US custody without giving him a chance to challenge the case against him.
The militia has long been aligned with Iran’s Quds Force, the external operations wing of the Revolutionary Guards. One of its main goals has been to force US troops out of Iraq.
Years of attacks on US military positions in Iraq and Syria by Kataib Hezbollah contributed to Washington designating the group as a foreign terrorist organisation in 2009.
Prosecutors said Mr Al Saadi, 32, worked closely with Qassem Suleimani, a top IRGC commander and Kataib Hezbollah leader Abu Mahdi Al Muhandis, who were both killed in the same drone strike in 2020 by the United States.
He is being held without bail in a federal facility in Brooklyn and faces life in prison if convicted of the most serious charges against him.
Prosecutors said Mr Al Saadi also sought to orchestrate attacks inside the United States, including targeting a synagogue in New York and Jewish centres in Los Angeles and Scottsdale.
According to the complaint, he transferred thousands of dollars to an undercover law enforcement officer posing as a member of a Mexican drug cartel who claimed he could carry out the attacks.
