Iraqi man accused of NYC synagogue plot after attacks in Europe and
Canada in response to Iran war
[May 16, 2026]
By MICHAEL R. SISAK
NEW YORK (AP) — An Iraqi national accused of plotting at least 18 terror
attacks in Europe in retaliation for the U.S. and Israel’s war with
Iran, including firebombing a bank in Amsterdam and stabbing Jewish men
in London, has been arrested and charged with supporting Iran-backed
terrorist organizations.
According to a complaint unsealed Friday in federal court in Manhattan,
Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi sought to attack a New York City
synagogue last month and provided an undercover law enforcement officer
with photos and maps of Jewish centers in Los Angeles and Scottsdale,
Arizona, that he planned to target.
Al-Saadi is also accused of involvement in two recent attacks in Canada:
an attack on a synagogue and a shooting at the U.S. consulate in Toronto
in March. U.S. prosecutors said he directed and urged other people to
attack U.S. and Israeli interests, including by killing Americans and
Jews.
Al-Saadi posted about the attacks on Snapchat and Telegram and spoke
about them in phone calls recorded by an FBI informant whose help he
solicited in planning attacks in the U.S., the complaint said. Al-Saadi
told the informant he was willing to kill people in any such attacks,
the complaint said.
Al-Saadi, 32, is charged with conspiracy to provide material support to
Kata’ib Hizballah, an Iran-backed Iraqi Shia militant group, and Iran's
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, both of which have been designated by
the U.S. government as foreign terrorist organizations. U.S. prosecutors
said Al-Saadi was a Kata’ib Hizballah commander.
He is also charged with conspiring and providing material support for
acts of terrorism and conspiring to bomb a place of public use. If
convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison.
FBI Director Kash Patel described Al-Saadi as a "high-value target
responsible for mass global terrorism" and said his arrest was the
product of "a righteous mission executed brilliantly” by the agency's
agents and law enforcement partners.
New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, whose officers
investigated Al-Saadi as part of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force,
said the case “puts into stark relief the global threats posed by the
Iranian regime and its proxies like Kata’ib Hizballah.”
Al-Saadi smiled throughout his initial court appearance but did not
speak.
Through his lawyer, he called himself a political prisoner and a
prisoner of war and said the U.S. is persecuting him for his
relationship with Qasem Soleimani, the Revolutionary Guard leader who
was killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2020.
Al-Saadi was not required to enter a plea. He will remain jailed but
could request bail.
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This photo from a criminal complaint unsealed Friday, May 15, 2026
by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York,
shows Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, right, with Qasem
Soleimani, former commander of the Iran's Islamic Revolutionary
Guard Corps' Quds Force, featured on al-Saadi’s Snapchat account
according to a federal criminal complaint. (U.S. District Court for
the Southern District of New York via AP)
His lawyer, Andrew Dalack, said Al-Saadi was arrested in Turkey and
turned over to U.S. authorities. In his statement, Patel thanked U.S.
Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack, calling him "instrumental in bringing
this successful mission home to the United States.”
Al-Saadi has been kept in solitary confinement since he arrived at a
federal jail in Brooklyn on Thursday night, Dalack said, adding that
such treatment was “unusual given the nature of charges in the
complaint."
According to the complaint, Al-Saadi and unnamed associates planned,
coordinated, and claimed responsibility for a barrage of attacks in the
name of Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya, a component of Kata’ib
Hizballah, since the war started on Feb. 28.
They include the bombing of a Bank of New York Mellon building in
Amsterdam in mid-March and a thwarted bomb attack on a Bank of America
office in Paris on March 28, the complaint said. Teenage suspects were
previously arrested in both cases.
The Amsterdam attack caused a fire and significant damage to the
building, but no injuries, according to local media reports. It followed
an explosion outside a Jewish school in Amsterdam, which Al-Saadi
celebrated on Snapchat with an Ashab al-Yamin-branded video showing the
blast and the assailants fleeing on a motorcycle, the criminal complaint
said.
In Paris, police found a homemade bomb consisting of a gasoline-filled
container taped to a powerful firework. Forensic experts said the device
contained 650 grams (about 23 ounces) of explosives and that it could
have produced a large fireball and ignited a significant blaze.
Last month, Al-Saadi set his sights on bombing Jewish sites in the U.S.
and offered the undercover law enforcement officer $10,000 in
cryptocurrency for what he envisioned as simultaneous attacks on the New
York synagogue and the Jewish centers in Arizona and California, the
criminal complaint said.
After paying the officer an initial installment of $3,000 for the
synagogue attack, Al-Saadi encouraged him to strike as soon as possible,
telling him in an April 6 text message: “I wanna see good news tonight .
. . not tomorrow bro,” the complaint said.
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