US charges Iraqi man with organising synagogue attacks in Europe, New York on behalf of Iran

JTA – An Iraqi man who was recently arrested in Turkey has been charged with plotting an array of attacks against Jewish targets, including on a synagogue in New York City, in response to the United States-Israel war with Iran. 

A criminal complaint that was unsealed on Friday claims that Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, 32, is a commander in the Iraq-based Kataib Hezbollah, which functions as a proxy for Iran. The complaint was unsealed when Al-Saadi appeared in federal court in Manhattan. 

The complaint alleges that he is responsible in part for organising the attacks in Europe that have been claimed by a new group, Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya. It marks the first major disclosure of intelligence information tying the group directly to the Quds Force, the overseas arm of the Iranian regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and includes multiple photographs of Al-Saadi meeting in person with IRGC leaders. 

Attacks that Al-Saadi organised include 18 in Europe that Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya publicly claimed, as well as the stabbing of two Jews in London last month, the complaint alleges. He also organised multiple attacks in Canada that were carried out and plotted others that did not take place, the complaint alleged. 

Al-Saadi is charged with six crimes, including conspiracy to provide support for acts of terror and conspiracy to provide support for a foreign terrorist organisation. The Trump administration declared the IRGC a terrorist organisation in 2019. He did not speak during his first court appearance on Friday, according to The New York Times, which reported that his attorney called him “a political prisoner and prisoner of war”. 

“As alleged in the complaint, Al-Saadi directed and urged others to attack US and Israeli interests and to kill Americans and Jews in the US and abroad, and in doing so advance the terrorist goals of Kataib Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement on Friday. “These charges show American law enforcement will never let such evil go unchecked and will use all tools to disrupt and dismantle foreign terrorist organisations and their leaders.” 

The incidents targeting Jews came amid warnings that Iran, which has a long record of organising terror attacks abroad, would retaliate against the United States, Israel, and Jews around the world. 

The complaint, reflecting a sworn affidavit from Kathryn McDonald, a Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) special agent, says Al-Saadi offered to pay online contacts $10 000 (R166 505) to stage attacks on US Jewish targets. 

According to the criminal complaint, Al-Saadi sent a $3 000 (R49 951) down payment in cryptocurrency to an agent who was posing as someone willing to stage attacks on Jewish targets in New York, Los Angeles, and Scottsdale, Arizona, in April. 

Al-Saadi allegedly told the agent that “things are working for us here” in Europe but that he was looking for more assistance in the United States and Canada. He shared a picture of what the complaint says is a “prominent Jewish synagogue” in New York and said he had selected it as a target because it supported “the right for Israel to exist”. The agent initially agreed to stage an attack but stopped communicating with Al-Saadi after sending a picture showing that the synagogue was guarded by police officers. 

The Community Security Initiative (CSI), a group coordinating security for Jews in New York, sent a “community security bulletin” on Friday after Al-Saadi appeared in federal court in Manhattan, saying that the arrest did not come as a surprise. 

“CSI has been in contact with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York since April 2026 regarding this plot, and they have been keeping us apprised as events have evolved,” chief executive Mitchell Silber said in the bulletin. He added, “At this time, we are not at liberty to disclose the targeted location.” 

Kataib Hezbollah is the group that abducted and held a Russian-Israeli Princeton University researcher, Elizabeth Tsurkov, for more than two years until September. Following the revelation of Al-Saadi’s arrest, she praised the FBI agents who worked on the case, including one who also investigated her kidnapping. 

“This ginger angel kept doggedly working my case because she knew I needed her and she knew that solving the case would help US national security interests. Indeed, owing to the incredible stupidity of my torturers, they provided me with a plethora of information about their operations, which I happily provided to the FBI after my release,” Tsurkov tweeted. “The American people are lucky to have such dedicated agents helping to keep them safe.”