US authorities have arrested and charged a 32-year-old Iraqi national, Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, with involvement in nearly 20 alleged terrorist attacks and plots spanning Europe and the United States, the Justice Department announced on Friday. Al-Saadi, described as a senior commander within Kata'ib Hezbollah — an Iraqi paramilitary group designated as a terrorist organisation by Washington — appeared before a federal magistrate judge in Manhattan after being transferred into US custody overseas. ABC News reported that he was detained in Turkey before being handed over to American authorities. He faces six terrorism-related charges, including conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organisation, conspiracy to bomb a place of public use, and attempted destruction of property by fire or explosives.
Prosecutors allege that al-Saadi coordinated or supported at least 18 attacks across Europe and two in Canada, carried out in response to US and Israeli military operations against Iran that began in late February. Among the attacks attributed to him or his associates are a firebombing of a New York Mellon bank branch in Amsterdam, an arson attack on a synagogue in Skopje, North Macedonia's capital, and the stabbing of two Jewish men in London — one of whom held dual US-British citizenship. The wave of violence, particularly against Jewish community centres, charities, and synagogues in the United Kingdom, prompted British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to describe a "crisis of antisemitism." Multiple attacks were claimed in the name of a previously obscure group called Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia (HAYI), which the Justice Department says is a front organisation serving the goals of Kata'ib Hezbollah, Hezbollah, and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Court documents paint a picture of a well-connected operative. Al-Saadi allegedly worked closely with Qassem Suleimani, the former IRGC commander killed in a US airstrike near Baghdad's airport in January 2020, and with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the head of Kata'ib Hezbollah, who died in the same strike. Following their deaths, al-Saadi allegedly used social media to call for revenge against Americans. In March 2026, he allegedly used a Snapchat account titled "Shadow soldiers" to activate terrorist cells globally. Prosecutors also allege that on 3 April, al-Saadi sent photographs and maps of a prominent Manhattan synagogue, as well as Jewish institutions in Los Angeles and Scottsdale, Arizona, to an undercover law enforcement officer, directing him to carry out attacks and discussing whether to use an improvised explosive device or set the building on fire. No attack took place.
FBI Director Kash Patel described al-Saadi as a "high-value target responsible for mass terrorist acts on a global scale," and said elite FBI tactical units worked alongside partner agencies abroad to carry out the arrest and transfer. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the case demonstrated that US law enforcement would "use all tools to disrupt and dismantle foreign terrorist organisations and their leaders." New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch said her agency had disrupted the plot against the Manhattan synagogue and coordinated with the institution's leadership to ensure its safety.
Al-Saadi's defence attorney, Andre Dalack, declined to address the charges on the merits, urging against a "rush to judgment" and raising concerns about his client being held in solitary confinement, which he called "both cruel and unnecessary." The case carries broader geopolitical weight: US authorities have in recent months pressed Iraq's government to draw a clearer line between state institutions and Iran-linked militias, warning that Baghdad must take concrete steps to end the political and financial cover these groups enjoy. The charges add significant legal weight to longstanding Western concerns about Iran's use of proxy networks to wage hybrid warfare against its adversaries and their allies.