Iraqi national charged in alleged plot to attack U.S. synagogues

An Iraqi national was charged Friday after prosecutors said he sought to attack a synagogue in New York City and passed an undercover law enforcement officer photos and maps of Jewish centers in Los Angeles and Scottsdale, Arizona, in what investigators described as a widening terror plot aimed at Jewish targets in the United States.

The complaint, unsealed in federal court in Manhattan, identifies the defendant as Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi. Prosecutors said he looked to strike a New York City synagogue last month and is also accused of involvement in two recent attacks in Canada: an assault on a synagogue and a shooting at the U.S. consulate in Toronto in March.

Al-Saadi is charged with conspiracy to provide material support to Kata’ib Hizballah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, both of which the U.S. government has designated as foreign terrorist organizations. He also faces charges of conspiring and providing material support for acts of terrorism and conspiring to bomb a place of public use.

The case adds to a troubling pattern that has put synagogue security at the center of the threat environment facing Jewish institutions in the United States. Prosecutors said Al-Saadi was accused of plotting at least 18 terror attacks in Europe in retaliation for the U.S. war in Iran, including the firebombing of a bank in Amsterdam and the stabbing of Jewish men in London. He was expected to make his initial court appearance Friday.

The allegations also land against the backdrop of earlier cases in New York tied to threats against Jewish sites. In June 2025, the Justice Department said Pakistani national Muhammad Shahzeb Khan had been extradited from Canada to face charges for attempting to enter the United States and carry out a mass shooting with automatic and semi-automatic weapons at a prominent Jewish center in Brooklyn in support of ISIS.

Another case ended with Christopher Brown receiving a 10-year prison sentence in November 2024 after he and Matthew Mahrer were arrested at Penn Station in 2022. Prosecutors said a tip from the Community Security Initiative helped stop that plot before an attack could happen, a reminder of how congregational security networks, federal investigators and local police have become part of the defense around synagogues as threats persist.