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An Iraqi nationalist accused of engagement in aggregate attacks against U.S. interests successful Europe has been arrested and brought to the U.S. to look six terrorism-related counts, the U.S. Justice Department said connected Friday (May 15, 2026).
Prosecutors said the suspect, Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, was a elder subordinate of the Iran-backed militia Kata’ib Hezbollah and accused him of providing worldly enactment to a overseas violent organization.
Al-Saadi is accused of coordinating oregon supporting astir 20 attacks and attempted attacks across Europe and the United States, “including his efforts to kill connected U.S. soil,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton for the Southern District of New York successful a statement.
The U.S. authorities and autarkic experts accidental Kata’ib Hezbollah operates astatine the direction of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The charges travel amid heightened U.S. scrutiny of Iran-backed militias accused of targeting American unit and allies crossed aggregate regions amid the ongoing U.S. and Israeli warfare against Iran.
U.S. officials said helium was taken into American custody overseas and transported to the United States, wherever helium appeared earlier a magistrate justice and was ordered detained pending trial. ABC News reported helium was detained successful Turkey and handed implicit to the Americans.
Prosecutors allege Al-Saadi directed and encouraged attacks connected U.S. and Israeli targets, including efforts to termination Americans and Jewish civilians, arsenic portion of a broader run tied to Iranian-backed militant groups.
Defense lawyer Andre Dalack declined to code the substance of the charges, saying it was excessively aboriginal to sermon details of the case. But helium cautioned against a “rush to judgment” and raised concerns astir Al-Saadi’s detainment.
“We’re chiefly acrophobic at the infinitesimal with the conditions of his confinement, arsenic we recognize he’s being held successful solitary confinement, which we deliberation is some cruel and unnecessary,” Mr. Dalack told Reuters.
Court documents cited by officials picture attacks linked to Al-Saadi and his associates that included bombings, arson and assaults targeting American interests abroad. Officials besides allege helium discussed imaginable attacks wrong the United States, including imaginable targets successful New York, California and Arizona.
