Fuel-van plot against RAF Fairford: U.S. charges three Iran-backed operatives, with coded messages sent from jail

Three white vans, some of them carrying fuel barrels, with the markings of a fuel distribution company and drivers taking instructions from Iran, headed on September 26 for RAF Fairford, the British air base where American military aircraft and personnel were stationed at the time. The plan is described in a superseding indictment unsealed on Tuesday, November 10, as announced by the U.S. Department of Justice, with three defendants who, according to American authorities, acted on behalf of the Revolutionary Guards and Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah.

They are Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, 32, with Iranian and Iraqi citizenship, Iranian Mohsen Mohajeri, 48, and Iraqi Mohammad Ali al-Hasani, 35. The indictment contains eight counts and attributes to them involvement in nearly 20 attacks and attempted attacks in Europe and the United States. The case is being handled by the federal prosecutor’s office for the Southern District of New York.

From reconnaissance to a security checkpoint

According to the charges, al-Hasani paid a person in Britain on August 22 to carry out reconnaissance of the base perimeter and send him video. In September he assigned associates to buy vans and fuel barrels, to look into buying chemical combustion accelerants, among them large quantities of potassium chloride, and to procure metal objects that could be used as shrapnel for an explosive device. At his urging, specially made stickers were attached to the vehicles so that they looked like vehicles of a fuel distribution company and a pool supplies company.

On September 26 the three vehicles moved towards the base, with al-Hasani guiding the drivers from Iran. At least two of them, on the way to the base perimeter, ran into a security checkpoint and were not allowed to continue along the route they had planned. In the early hours of September 27 British authorities located the three vans and arrested those on board.

The most unusual point concerns al-Saadi. He was arrested abroad around May 1, taken to the United States and is held in New York, where he awaits trial for about 18 attacks in Europe and for an attempted bombing of a synagogue in New York. Prosecutors say that from prison he sent coded messages through phone calls with his mother and sister in Iraq. On September 24, three days before the attempt, he asked his relatives to give money to “Ali”, that is, al-Hasani, “so that we can do it”.

The same defendants are linked to the front organisation HAYI, which claimed responsibility for 18 attacks in Europe in the spring of 2026: arson, explosive devices and the stabbing of two Jews in London. Seven of them took place in Britain. In a video of a meeting in Iraq in April, al-Hasani tells Mohajeri that “we must focus on London”. About a week later six attacks began in and around London, for which HAYI claimed responsibility. On April 17, according to the indictment, the three watched one of the attacks live on a large screen via FaceTime and gave instructions to the perpetrator.

RAF Fairford has been in the spotlight before, including when 29 countries, Greece among them, condemned Tehran’s attacks in Europe. The American presence at British bases has already adapted to the Iranian threat, as the removal of aerial refuelling aircraft from Mildenhall showed.

“Anyone who plans a terrorist attack on a military base hosting American service members will be prosecuted by the United States government,” said Attorney General Todd Blanche. FBI Director Kash Patel spoke of Iran’s determination to strike in Europe and the U.S. The charges are allegations by the prosecution and the defendants are presumed innocent until proven otherwise in court.