Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, a 32-year-old Iraqi national, appeared in a Manhattan federal courtroom on Friday to face charges that U.S. prosecutors say tie him to a sprawling campaign of terrorist violence across Europe and North America — a campaign they allege he directed as a commander in the Iran-backed Kata’ib Hizballah. The charges, unsealed the same day, accuse Al-Saadi of conspiring to bomb a New York City synagogue, plotting attacks on Jewish sites in the American West, and orchestrating at least 18 attacks in Europe that were launched in retaliation for the ongoing U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.
The complaint, filed by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, marks a significant escalation of the domestic threatscape linked to Iranian proxy forces. It alleges that Al-Saadi used encrypted platforms to coordinate bombings, celebrated the attacks on social media, and personally recruited an FBI informant to carry out strikes in the United States. The document paints a portrait of a high-level operative who moved freely between operational direction and the graphic celebration of violence.
European campaign, Canadian strikes
Beginning shortly after the war’s outbreak on February 28, Al-Saadi and unnamed associates — operating as Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya, a component of Kata’ib Hizballah — claimed a flurry of attacks, prosecutors said. In mid-March, a Bank of New York Mellon building in Amsterdam was firebombed, causing significant damage but no injuries. The attack came days after an explosion outside a Jewish school in the same city; Al-Saadi allegedly celebrated both on Snapchat, posting a video branded with the group’s insignia that showed the school blast and assailants fleeing on a motorcycle.
On March 28, French police intercepted a homemade bomb planted on the outside windowsill of a Bank of America office in Paris. The device — a gasoline-filled container taped to a powerful firework — contained 650 grams of explosive material and could have produced a large fireball and sparked a major blaze, according to the complaint. Teenage suspects were arrested in connection with both the Amsterdam and Paris incidents.
In London, Al-Saadi is accused of directing the stabbing of Jewish men. The complaint does not detail the exact date, but it describes the assault as part of the broader European wave.
The violence crossed the Atlantic, too. U.S. prosecutors allege Al-Saadi directed and urged others to attack American and Israeli interests, including an attack on a synagogue in Canada and the March shooting at the U.S. consulate in Toronto, in which no one was killed. The relationship between those Canadian incidents and the accused is based, in part, on phone calls recorded by the FBI informant.
The U.S. plot and an undercover officer
By April, Al-Saadi had turned his attention directly to the American homeland. He offered an undercover law enforcement officer $10,000 in cryptocurrency for what he envisioned as simultaneous attacks on the New York synagogue and the Jewish centers in Arizona and California, the complaint said. He provided the officer with photographs and maps of the targets, and after an initial cryptocurrency payment of $3,000 for the synagogue attack, he pressed for speed. “I wanna see good news tonight … not tomorrow bro,” Al-Saadi texted on April 6, according to the complaint.
Al-Saadi had earlier solicited the officer’s help on the plot, the complaint said. In recorded calls, he was clear about his willingness to kill. The complaint quotes him telling the informant of his readiness to harm people in any attack.
Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, alongside FBI and NYPD brass, announced the unsealing of the charges at a joint press conference. They framed the arrest as a major counterterrorism coup.
FBI Director Kash Patel called Al-Saadi a “high-value target responsible for mass global terrorism” and credited the operation as “a righteous mission executed brilliantly” by agents and law enforcement partners. New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, whose detectives investigated Al-Saadi as part of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, said the case “puts into stark relief the global threats posed by the Iranian regime and its proxies like Kata’ib Hizballah.”
The arrest itself took place in Turkey, according to Al-Saadi’s lawyer, Andrew Dalack. U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack was “instrumental” in securing the handover, Patel said in his statement.
Court appearance and detention
Al-Saadi, wearing a green jail-issue jumpsuit, smiled throughout his brief initial appearance before a federal magistrate judge but did not speak. Through Dalack, he issued a defiant statement.
“He considers himself a political prisoner and a prisoner of war,” Dalack told reporters outside the courtroom. “He says the United States is persecuting him for his relationship with Qasem Soleimani, the Revolutionary Guard commander killed in a 2020 U.S. drone strike.”
Al-Saadi was not required to enter a plea. He was ordered detained, with the possibility of requesting bail, and was transported to a federal jail in Brooklyn. Dalack said his client has been held in solitary confinement since arriving Thursday night, calling the treatment “unusual given the nature of charges in the complaint.”
Charges and potential sentence
The criminal complaint charges Al-Saadi with conspiracy to provide material support to Kata’ib Hizballah and to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, both designated foreign terrorist organizations, as well as with conspiring and providing material support for acts of terrorism and conspiring to bomb a place of public use. If convicted on the most serious count, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
The case, prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, is expected to continue with grand jury proceedings. Al-Saadi’s next court date has not yet been set.