US charges three men over alleged Iran-backed plot at UK's RAF Fairford air base

The United States has charged three men with terrorism-related offences over an alleged plot targeting RAF Fairford, a British air base that US forces used to launch bombers in the war against Iran, Al Jazeera reported.

The US Justice Department said the men acted in support of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Iraq's armed group Kataib Hezbollah. Prosecutors link them to nearly 20 attacks and attempted attacks across the US and Europe.

"These defendants helped orchestrate a campaign of terror on behalf of terrorist organizations affiliated with Iran," said Jamie McDonald, the US Attorney in Manhattan.

Who has been charged?

Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, 32, an Iranian and Iraqi citizen, is already in custody in New York. Mohsen Mohajeri, 48, an Iranian, and Mohammad Ali al-Hassani, 35, an Iraqi, were also charged. Prosecutors have not said where those two men are.

What was the alleged plot?

Police were called to RAF Fairford in southwest England in September after a local farmer reported a group of men with several white vans acting suspiciously.

Prosecutors say al-Hassani told others to drive the vans to the base, some of them carrying fuel barrels. He allegedly paid the group to buy metal objects to use as shrapnel, and to disguise the vans as fuel delivery trucks.

They say al-Saadi passed coded messages to the other two men, using phone calls to his mother and sister in Iraq.

Days after the incident, the US withdrew all of its B-1 bombers from Fairford, according to Al Jazeera.

Charges in Britain too

Six men were arrested in the UK over the incident and released on bail. Two were later re-arrested and charged under Britain's National Security Act on suspicion of helping Iran's intelligence service, Stars and Stripes reported.

Not the first case against al-Saadi

In May, US prosecutors accused al-Saadi of directing attacks on US, Israeli and Jewish targets in retaliation for the war on Iran, The Washington Times reported. These included the stabbing of two Jewish men in London in April, who survived, and arson attacks on synagogues, Jewish schools and Israeli businesses in Europe.

He pleaded not guilty in June, calling himself a "prisoner of war", and has been held without bail since his arrest.

Iran has strongly denied any involvement in the Fairford incident and had no immediate comment on the new charges.