US indicts three men over alleged 'terror' attacks in US and Europe, including UK air base plot

Now, the U.S. Justice Department has indicted three men, an Iranian, an Iraqi, and a dual Iranian-Iraqi national accused of plotting attacks in America and Europe. Prosecutors say their targets included RAF Fairford, a British airbase used by the U.S. military in September. Al Jazeera's Matthew Torres joins us now from Washington, D.C. So what have these three men actually been accused of? Matthew, I don't know if you can hear me. What are these These are three men actually accused of. Yes. So the Justice Department is alleging that these three men orchestrated nearly 20 attacks or attempted attacks across the United States and Europe. And they are accusing these men of targeting Jewish communities, synagogues and most recently a British Royal Air Base there in the United Kingdom. And that most recent incident, according to authorities, is that these suspects coordinated plans to have vans. Carrying fuel, moving towards that base, and because of intelligence, British law enforcement was able to intercept these vans before the alleged attack could take place. Now, according to authorities and based on court documents, they were able to provide some photos allegedly showing these three men working together, whether that be planning the attack. Through video or behind their laptops, again, nearly 20 of these attacks, they are saying that they are responsible for whether that was was fulfilled or whether that was planned or not before it was intercepted. But this is something that the DOJ says that they were able to thwart. As far as being able to capture who these three men were, two of them were already overseas. One of them, particularly as far as what officials said, was already in federal custody here in the United States. This person was already accused of a number of charges, including alleged involvement in terror plots in the U.S. and across Europe. But this person who was already in custody was. Now, the DOJ, the Department of Justice, claims there's an Iranian connection. So, what more do we know about that? Right. So the DOJ is saying is describing these three men as operatives for Iran backed organizations, one of them being Iran's IRGC and the other organization being the Kataib Hezbollah. These are organizations that the United States has designated as foreign terrorist organizations. And so these three individuals originally either from Iran or Iraq, they say, have been coordinating these attacks for several for quite some time now and that this was in support. That's Matthew Torres live for us there from Washington, D.C., thank you.