US Indicts Three Operatives Over Fuel-Van Plot at UK Airbase
The US Justice Department filed an eight-count federal indictment on November 10, 2026, charging three Iranian operatives over an alleged terrorist plot targeting Britain’s RAF Fairford airbase in southwest England. Military personnel and counterterrorism agencies across Europe and North America face heightened security protocols as prosecutors detail broader network operations linked to Iran‘s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Kataeb Hezbollah.
US bomber fleet pulled from British airbase following disrupted fuel-van attack
The United States military withdrew its entire fleet of B-1 bombers from RAF Fairford days after the September incident, which began when a local farmer reported white vans engaged in suspicious activity near the site. Investigators found that 35-year-old Iraqi national Mohammad Ali al-Hassani allegedly directed individuals to drive vans loaded with fuel barrels to the base, having previously funded the purchase of metallic objects for shrapnel and arranged for the vehicles to be disguised as commercial fuel delivery trucks. Dual Iranian-Iraqi national Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, 32, who has been held in US custody in New York since May on prior terrorism charges, allegedly passed coded messages to Al-Hassani and 48-year-old Iranian national Mohsen Mohajeri to coordinate the operation. US Attorney General Todd Blanche stated that anyone planning a terrorist plot on a military base housing American service members will be prosecuted by the United States government.
Flight-tracking data confirmed the US military also removed at least 12 aircraft from a second British facility, RAF Mildenhall, following subsequent threat assessments. UK police charged two British men with national security offenses related to the RAF Fairford breach, including assisting a foreign intelligence service and entering a prohibited place.
Federal prosecutors previously linked Al-Saadi to at least 18 terrorist attacks across Europe and two in Canada, including an April stabbing of two Jewish men in London and arson attacks on synagogues and school facilities in Amsterdam and Munich.
