An Iraqi man accused of orchestrating 18 terror attacks in Europe in retaliation for the joint U.S.-Israel military operation in Iran has been connected to a shooting at the U.S. Consulate in Toronto last March.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced the arrest of Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi last week.
FBI director Kash Patel described him as a “high-value target responsible for mass global terrorism” who was a senior member of Kata’ib Hizballah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), both of which have been designated by the U.S. government as foreign terrorist organizations.
According to a 29-page criminal complaint filed in federal court last Friday, Al-Saadi told an FBI informant during a recorded phone call that “our people” were behind two attacks in Canada, including a shooting at the U.S. Consulate on March 10.
Police were called to the building on University Avenue at approximately 5:30 a.m. that morning after a white Honda CRV, containing two individuals, pulled up to the building and shot at it before driving off.
Chief Superintendent Chris Leather, Officer in Charge of Criminal Operations for RCMP Ontario, said at the time that the shooting was being treated as a “national security incident.”
No injuries were reported.
The DOJ went onto say the second alleged terror attack on Canadian soil involved an unnamed synagogue.
According to court filing, Al-Saadi and unnamed associates planned, coordinated, and claimed responsibility for a number of attacks in the name of Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya, a component of Kata’ib Hizballah, since the military operation in Iran began on Feb. 28.
They include the bombing of a Bank of New York Mellon building in Amsterdam in mid-March and a thwarted bomb attack on a Bank of America office in Paris on March 28, the complaint read. Teenage suspects were previously arrested in both cases.
Ten days after the attack in Toronto, Al-Saadi allegedly told the FBI informant he was “running multiple teams” to carry out the attacks in Europe, but that he needed support “in Canada or America.”
“If [FBI Informant] can do anything . . . that would be . . . very, very important,” the document reads.
Two weeks later, Al-Saadi was recorded speaking to an undercover law enforcement officer posing as a Mexican cartel member who said he had the capability of carrying out a terrorist attack in New York and elsewhere in the U.S.
Al-Saadi then provided the officer with photos and maps of the Jewish centres he was targeting in New York, Los Angeles and Scottsdale, Ariz. Al-Saadi was allegedly going to pay the officer US$10,000 to carry out the attacks simultaneously and on April 6 texted him: “I wanna see good news tonight . . . not tomorrow bro.”
The 32-year-old was arrested in Turkiye before he was turned over to U.S. authorities.
Through his lawyer, Al-Saadi called himself a political prisoner and a prisoner of war, and said he is being persecuted by U.S. authorities for his relationship with Qasem Soleimani, the Revolutionary Guard leader who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad in 2020.
Al-Saadi was not required to enter a plea. He will remain jailed but could request bail.
He’s charged with conspiracy to provide material support to Kata’ib Hizballah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He’s also charged with conspiring and providing material support for acts of terrorism and conspiring to bomb a place of public use, the latter of which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.
CTV News Toronto has reached out to the Toronto Police Service for more information about their potential involvement in the investigation.
With files from The Associated Press
