Iraqi militia leader pleads not guilty in Iran-linked attack plot

A senior Iraqi militia figure accused of helping drive an Iran-linked attack network across Europe and the United States pleaded not guilty in Manhattan federal court, as prosecutors cast the case as part of a broader security threat reaching Jewish sites and American interests. Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, identified by the Justice Department as a senior member of Kata’ib Hizballah, was ordered detained pending trial after his arrest overseas and transfer into U.S. custody.

At Monday’s arraignment before Judge Colleen McMahon, Al-Saadi entered his not guilty plea through counsel and then interrupted the proceeding, saying, “I am not a criminal.” He added, “we are in a war situation,” while also complaining that children were being killed by U.S. rockets. Two U.S. marshals moved toward him after the outburst, underscoring how quickly the hearing turned from a routine plea proceeding into a flashpoint in a case that prosecutors say implicates foreign-backed militancy on American soil.

The Justice Department said Al-Saadi was charged in a complaint with six terrorism-related offenses, and later court action added an eight-count indictment. Prosecutors said he was involved in nearly 20 attacks and attempted attacks across Europe and the United States, including a network of about 18 attacks in Europe since March and plots in the United States in March and April. Court papers also tied the case to an alleged plot against a New York synagogue, placing the investigation squarely in the center of New York’s security landscape. Prosecutors said more people may be charged, and that some individuals had already been arrested in related attacks.

Authorities have described the alleged campaign as beginning after the outbreak of the Iran war in late February, with attacks aimed at Jewish sites and U.S. and Israeli interests in Europe, Canada and the United States. The Justice Department said Al-Saadi directed and urged others to attack U.S. and Israeli interests and to kill Americans and Jews at home and abroad. The complaint and related reporting link the alleged violence to Kata’ib Hizballah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, suggesting a chain that prosecutors say runs from overseas strategy to local operatives and targets.

Al-Saadi’s case now stands as more than an isolated prosecution. If additional charges follow, or if prosecutors identify more suspects tied to the Europe and U.S. plots, the case would signal a wider effort to map how foreign-backed militant networks may have penetrated cities, communities and courtrooms inside the United States.