Zürcher Nachrichten - US says Iran-backed militia commander planned Jewish site attacks

Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, 32, is said to have directed and urged others to attack US and Israeli interests, and to kill Americans and Jews, in retaliation for the war against Iran.

He was identified as a senior figure in Kataeb Hezbollah, a US-designated foreign terrorist organization linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The Islamic Republic has in the past been accused of seeking to orchestrate terrorist incidents, and several have occurred since US-Israeli strikes on Iran began in late February.

According to US court filings, Al-Saadi and unidentified associates planned, coordinated and claimed responsibility for at least 18 terrorist attacks in Europe, and two in Canada.

Those attacks "appear to have been carried out both in retaliation for the United States and Israel's recent military actions against Iran and to compel the United States and Israel to halt those actions," a criminal complaint states.

Examples included the non-fatal stabbing of two Jewish men in London on April 29, as well as several arson attacks on synagogues, Israeli businesses and Jewish schools in Amsterdam, Munich and elsewhere.

Al-Saadi's exact role is unclear, beyond allegations that he posted propaganda videos of the attacks on social media after they happened.

In a recorded phone call, Al-Saadi is said to have unwittingly told an FBI informant that he or his associates were involved in the European attacks, as well as two in Canada.

Authorities believe those include the March 10 shooting at the US Consulate in Toronto, in which no one was injured.

- 'High-value target' -

Al-Saadi is most recently alleged to have plotted attacks in the United States against a New York synagogue and two Jewish centers in California and Arizona.

He allegedly paid an undercover US agent a $3,000 down payment to conduct the New York attack, before a warrant for his arrest was issued.

FBI director Kash Patel said on X that his agency had arrested and returned Al-Saadi to the United States, calling him a "high-value target responsible for mass global terrorism."

Al-Saadi appeared Friday at a Manhattan court where he was charged with six counts including conspiracy to provide material support to terrorist groups Kataeb Hezbollah and the IRGC.

He is also charged with conspiring and providing material support for acts of terrorism and conspiring to bomb a place of public use.

Kataeb Hezbollah is part of a pro-Iranian network in Iraq that regularly claims responsibility for attacks on American targets in the Middle East.

The US blamed it for the December 2020 attack against an Iraqi base housing US troops that killed a US citizen contractor.

That incident sent tensions soaring, with the United States eventually killing Iran's most powerful general, Qassem Soleimani, in a drone attack at the Baghdad airport.

Kataeb Hezbollah was also responsible for kidnapping American journalist Shelly Kittleson for several days in March 2026, at the height of fighting between Iran, Israel and the United States.

J.Hasler--NZN