U.S. accuses Kataib Hezbollah leader of urging attacks on Americans, Jews

A federal complaint has put a stark homeland-security threat on the record: an alleged Kataib Hezbollah leader is accused of urging attacks on Americans and Jews, and of trying to bankroll violence against a synagogue in New York. Prosecutors say Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, a high-level member of Kata’ib Hizballah with ties to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah, directed and encouraged attacks on U.S. and Israeli interests in retaliation for the conflict involving Iran.

The complaint says Al-Saadi and associates were linked to at least 18 terrorist attacks in Europe and two more in Canada, a pattern that underscores how a militia network rooted in Iraq can project threat activity far beyond the Middle East. Among the attacks cited were a firebombing of a Bank of New York Mellon building in Amsterdam, an attempted detonation of improvised explosives at a Bank of America building in Paris, and stabbings in London. Prosecutors say Al-Saadi allegedly offered thousands of dollars to someone he believed would carry out an attack on a synagogue in New York, but the person was an undercover law enforcement officer.

The allegations matter because Kataib Hezbollah is not a fringe actor. The group was founded in 2007 and the State Department designated it as a foreign terrorist organization in July 2009. The National Counterterrorism Center says the Iran-backed militia has 7,000 to 10,000 members, receives training, funds, logistics, weapons and intelligence from Iran’s IRGC-QF, and has carried out more than 150 attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria since the Israel-Hamas conflict began in October 2023.

The complaint lands against a broader U.S. crackdown on Iran-backed militias. The Treasury Department said on Nov. 17, 2023, that it designated six individuals affiliated with Kataib Hezbollah and warned that the group had continued launching drone and rocket attacks on Iraqi and U.S. military locations in Iraq and Syria. The new allegations suggest that the same proxy infrastructure used to hit military targets overseas may also be used to plan or inspire violence against civilians on American soil, turning a regional militia campaign into a direct domestic security concern.