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US Air Force B-1 bombers line up to fly out of RAF Fairford on October 4 after an alleged terror threat. Photo / Getty Images
The US Justice Department has charged three men it described as “Iranian operatives” over their role in an alleged terrorist plot at Britain’s RAF Fairford airbase.
Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, Mohsen Mohajeri and Mohammad Ali al-Hassani were charged in relation to the September incident at the base, which
has been used by the US military in its operations against Iran.
Police were called to the Fairford site in southwest England after a local farmer reported seeing a group of men with several white vans engaged in “suspicious” activity.
A US charging document states that al-Hassani, 35, an Iraqi national, directed unnamed individuals to drive to the base in the vans, some of which contained barrels of fuel.
It claims that he earlier paid the group to buy metallic objects that could be used as shrapnel, and to disguise the vehicles as being engaged in fuel delivery services.
Al-Saadi, 32, a dual Iranian-Iraqi national already jailed in New York on terrorism charges, allegedly passed coded messages ahead of the plot to Al-Hassani and Mohajeri, 48, an Iranian national.
The United States abruptly withdrew all its B-1 bombers from the Royal Air Force (RAF) site following the incident.
“Anyone who plans a terrorist plot on a military base housing American service members will be prosecuted by the United States government,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said.
The trio were charged in an eight-count indictment that alleges their involvement in several other plots in support of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and pro-Iranian group Kataeb Hezbollah.
– AFP
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