Startling details have emerged of how alleged terrorists with strong links to Tehran directed and filmed an arson attack on a synagogue in London, according to US court documents.
The arson was said to be part of a series of attacks on the capital’s Jewish community and other European targets in “psychological warfare” being waged by Iranian terror proxies.
The Justice Department in Washington has announced an eight-count indictment charging Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, a dual Iranian-Iraqi national, with terrorism-related offences after attacks and attempted attacks in Britain, other European countries and the US.
Al-Saadi, 32, is alleged to be a “longtime operative” of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and of Kata’ib Hizballah and to have “furthered the terrorist goals of those groups” since around 2017.
“As alleged, in recent months, Al-Saadi has helped plan and direct approximately 18 attacks and attempted attacks across Europe on behalf of those terrorist organizations,” the indictment adds.
“Those attacks were carried out in the name of a purportedly new terrorist group with the pseudonym Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya, which is actually a front of Kata’ib Hizballah and other US designated FTOs (foreign terrorist organisations).”
Two alleged “attacks” on London are detailed in the 35-page court document.
The first is a video “on or about April 18” when a “terrorist attack” was made against a London synagogue, which is not named.
On the 18th, Kenton United Synagogue in Shaftsbury Avenue, Harrow, north London, was targeted in an arson attack, believed to involve a petrol bomb.
A 17-year-old, a British national from Brent, has pleaded guilty to committing arson not endangering life and is due to appear at Willesden Magistrates' Court on 4 June.
The video shows Al-Saadi and three or four other men on a FaceTime video call, says the indictment.
“The video call is projected onto a large screen against the background of the Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiyah logo,” it adds.
“Al-Saadi is recording the attack through the call.
“In the video, one of the men, in English, instructs the individual on the other end of the call to execute the attack, directing that individual to take a lighter and ‘light one in your hand,’ ‘light it’ and ‘throw the fourth one.’”
The second London case highlighted is what appears to have been a propaganda video of an alleged drone attack on Israel’s Embassy near Kensington High Street, west London.
“On or about April 14, Al-Saadi received on an encrypted messaging application videos of two men dressed in hazmat suits, with the Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya logo taped to each suit, and a drone that appears to have two vials of white powder attached to it,” say the US documents.
“Screenshots from these videos are shown below.
“The content of these videos is consistent with the propaganda video that Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya posted on Telegram on or about April 16, 2026, in which it claimed that its members had attacked the Israeli Embassy in London using drones that were loaded with dangerous carcinogenic and radioactive materials.”
The attack did not take place.
Al-Saadi is believed to have been arrested in Turkey in mid-May and to have been transferred into the FBI’s custody before being flown to America.
He is alleged to have waived his right to a lawyer and to have made a series of confessions about his links to the IRGC and its proxies, including Kata’ib Hizballah.
“Al-Saadi’s social media accounts and the Al-Saadi Phone also contain evidence of Al-Saadi’s role in the planning, execution, and promotion of the European Terrorist Attacks,” the indictment states.
It adds that he was “responsible for media for Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya” and that he had explained that the propaganda videos of the European Terrorist Attacks were part of ‘psychological warfare’ that “the resistance” was waging against the US, designed to instill fear and terror in civilians.
On the day of the Golders Green stabbings, April 29, Al-Saadi instructed a Kata’ib Hizballah contact to “post it in the news[,] important,” referring to video footage of that attack, including a propaganda video that Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya posted on Telegram in which it claimed credit for that attack, the charging document adds.
However, there are serious doubts over whether Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya was involved in the attack.
Al-Saadi allegedly also said he was like a son of Qasem Soleimani, the longtime commander of the IRGC Quds Force who was killed during a US airstrike.
Charges against Al-Saadi include conspiring to provide material support to the IRGC, a foreign terrorist organization, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison; attempted acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries, which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison; conspiring to bomb a place of public use, which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison; attempted destruction of property by means of fire or explosive, which carries a minimum penalty of five years in prison and a maximum penalty of 20 years; and financing terrorism, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
