{"id":210785,"date":"2026-05-15T22:58:56","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T22:58:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/terrorist-commander-accused-of-planning-attacks-across-u-s-authorities-say-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T22:58:56","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T22:58:56","slug":"terrorist-commander-accused-of-planning-attacks-across-u-s-authorities-say-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/terrorist-commander-accused-of-planning-attacks-across-u-s-authorities-say-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Terrorist commander accused of planning attacks across U.S., authorities say – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A terrorist commander was accused of planning three attacks across the U.S. and faced <\/strong>terrorism charges on Wednesday.
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Mohammad Al-Saadi is accused of attempting to hire someone \u2014 who turned out to be an undercover member of law enforcement \u2014 to carry out the attacks, which were planned for New York City, Los Angeles and Scottsdale, Arizona. He is expected to appear in a federal court in lower Manhattan on Wednesday for his initial appearance, according to two sources familiar with the charges.
The alleged plot comes more than two months after the U.S. and Israel launched a war against Iran.
Al-Saadi is a commander of Kata\u2019ib Hizballah, a U.S. designated foreign terrorist organization operating in Iraq with ties to Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps \u2014 which the U.S. has also designated a foreign terrorist group \u2014 according to the complaint.
Since the war in Iran, Al-Saadi \u201chas directed attacks on U.S. and Israeli interests \u201cincluding by killing Americans and Jews,\u201d according to the indictment. 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, the complaint states.
Al-Saadi has also directed others and attempted to coordinate terrorist attacks in the United States, including in New York City, according to the complaint.
He was charged with two counts of conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, two counts of conspiring to provide material support for acts of terrorism, one count of conspiracy to bomb a place of public use and one count of destruction of property by means of fire or explosive.
The New York Police Department confirmed the allegations of a planned terrorist attack in a statement to NBC News.
\u201cWorking with our law enforcement partners, we disrupted a plan to attack a Manhattan synagogue, and in partnership with the synagogue\u2019s leadership, ensured its security when the threat was elevated,\u201d NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in a statement.
\u201cThis case puts into stark relief the global threats posed by the Iranian regime and its proxies like Kata\u2019ib Hizballah \u2014 Foreign Terrorist Organizations that have repeatedly targeted Jewish communities across Europe and the United States since the war began,\u201d she added.
Al-Saadi, an Iraqi citizen, \u201chas furthered the terrorist goals of that group and the IRGC since at least in or about 2017,\u201d according to the complaint. He has interacted with figures, including Qasem Soleimani, who was assassinated by the U.S. in 2020.
Since the start of the war in Iran on February 28, he has called on others to kill Americans and Israelis, according to the complaint.
\u201cDo not abandon the blood of your Imam of the time, oh Shiites of Iraq. Kill everyone who supports America and Israel,\u201d he wrote on Telegram on the day the war started, according to the complaint. \u201cDo not leave any of them remaining. Civil and military targets, as well as voices of discord, kill them everywhere.\u201d
The complaint <\/strong>states that in additional posts on X, Snapchat and Telegram, Al-Saadi continued to call for attacks on Americans and Israelis.
Al-Saadi was also responsible helping to orchestrate 18 attacks across Europe since the start of the war, including at a synagogue in Li\u00e8ge, Belgium, a Jewish school in Amsterdam, at the Bank of America building in Paris and arson attacks in London. The attacks were carried out \u201cin the name of Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya<\/a>\u201d \u2013 or HAYI \u2013 \u201ca component of Kata\u2019ib Hizballah,\u201d the complaint says.
Last month, Al-Saadi tried to hire an undercover law enforcement agent, who was posing as a Mexican cartel member, to set a New York City synagogue and two Jewish centers, one in Los Angeles and one in Scottsdale, on fire, according to the complaint. Al-Saadi offered to pay him $10,000 for committing the attacks, and asked that they be recorded on camera.
On a call on April 1, according to the complaint, Al-Saadi was recorded saying: \u201cwar will not end. Either they eradicate us, or we eradicate them.\u201d
Dr. Sajjan Gohel, the international security director of the Asia-Pacific Foundation, said HAYI is the \u201cfront used for propaganda and claim-of-responsibility operations, but it remains a vehicle for Iran\u2019s operations.\u201d
\u201cAlthough this plot has been stopped in the United States, the infrastructure the IRGC has created remains intact,\u201d Gohel added, using an acronym for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. \u201cThe worry will be that it demonstrates intent and desire to target Jewish communities globally, and the threat inside Europe remains prevalent.\u201d
Jonathan Dienst is chief justice contributor for NBC News and chief investigative reporter for WNBC-TV in New York.
Tom Winter is NBC\u2019s National Law Enforcement and Intelligence Correspondent.
Chloe Atkins reports for the NBC News National Security and Law Unit, based in New York.
Matt Lavietes is a reporter for NBC News.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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BREAKING: Supreme Court rejects Virginia Democrats\u2019 attempt to revive new congressional map news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeA terrorist commander was accused of planning three attacks across the U.S. and faced terrorism charges on Wednesday.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.Mohammad Al-Saadi is accused […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":210786,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-210785","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}