An Iraqi man was arrested Friday for what authorities described as ties to two foreign terrorist organizations and an attempted attack on a Jewish center in Los Angeles.
Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, 32, faces multiple terrorism-related charges alleging he worked with Kata’ib Hizballah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to a criminal complaint filed by the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons says he is currently being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. Court records do not show that Al-Saadi is represented by an attorney.
“In just three months, Mohammad Al-Saadi allegedly directed 18 terrorist attacks across Europe – including against United States citizens and interests – and planned to carry out similar attacks here in our country,” said FBI Acting Director James C. Barnacle Jr. in the statement.
Federal authorities said Al-Saadi spoke with a law enforcement official on or about April 3 about his plans to kill people in the United States. Al-Saadi allegedly attempted to coordinate and carry out terrorist attacks against undisclosed Jewish centers in New York, Los Angeles and Scottsdale, Ariz., in April and this month.
Officials say he either used an improvised explosive device or set fire to the area.
During a recorded call with an undercover officer on April 1, Al-Saadi allegedly asked if they knew someone who could carry out an attack in the United States and how much they would want to be paid, the complaint said. When asked what he wanted to attack, Al-Saadi allegedly said, “I mean we gave him a Jewish temple, a Jewish center,” according to court documents.
Authorities say Al-Saadi is the commander of Kata’ib Hizballah, a US-designated terrorist organization operating in Iraq that has close ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Iranian military and counterintelligence.
“Working with our law enforcement partners, we disrupted a plot targeting a Manhattan synagogue, and in cooperation with the synagogue’s leadership, ensured its safety when the threat was raised,” New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch said in a release.
Government officials said Al-Saadi had worked closely with Qasem Soleimani, the longtime IRGC-QF commander killed in a 2020 US airstrike.
Al-Saadi faces two counts of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, one count of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorist acts, one count of providing material support to terrorist acts, one count of conspiracy to bomb a public place and one count of destruction of property by fire or explosives.
The prosecution was handled by the Justice Department’s Office of National Security and the International Narcotics Division.
