An Iraqi national has been accused of at least 18 reported terrorist attacks in Europe and Canada against Israeli and U.S. interests in retaliation for the war in Iran.
According to court filings, Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al Saadi allegedly firebombed a Bank of New York Mellon building in Amsterdam, attempted to detonate explosives at the Bank of America building in Paris, coordinated an attack against a Jewish synagogue in the United States, and stabbed two people in London.
Al Saadi is a commander of Kataib Hezbollah, an Iraqi militia that serves as a proxy for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and threatens U.S. interests across the region, especially in Iraq and Syria. It is a different organization from Lebanon’s Hezbollah, another Iranian-backed militant group.
Since the Iran war started, al Saadi “has directed and urged others to attack U.S. and Israeli interests, including by killing Americans and Jews, in retaliation for the Iranian Military Conflict and to further the terrorist goals of Kata’ib Hizballah and the IRGC,” the complaint alleges, adding that “Al-Saadi and his associates have planned, coordinated, and claimed responsibility for at least 18 terrorist attacks in Europe as well as two additional attacks in Canada.”
Earlier this year, the group captured award-winning U.S. journalist Shelly Kittleson, who was reporting on regional developments in Baghdad.
Kittleson was returned uninjured to the United States after approximately a week in captivity.
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Kataib Hezbollah is part of Iran’s “Axis of Resistance” to attack U.S. troops in the surrounding region. The militant groups did not cause any “significant injuries” to U.S. forces in or near Iraq, according to a U.S. Central Command official’s statement to the Washington Examiner. The official added that the threat posed by the militias has had “no impact” on U.S. goals in Iran.
The U.S., Israel, and Iran have negotiated on a shaky ceasefire, as permanent peace talks have struggled to take off.