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He called himself a prisoner of war. He invoked the name of a slain Iranian general. And according to federal prosecutors, he spent months orchestrating a transoceanic campaign of violence — 20 reported terrorist attacks across Europe and Canada — targeting American and Israeli interests with the methodical fury of a man who believed he was fighting a war on foreign soil.

Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, an Iraqi national with alleged deep ties to Iran's most dangerous proxy networks, made his initial appearance Friday in Manhattan federal court, charged with conspiring to provide material support to terrorist organizations, conspiracy to bomb a place of public use, and related offenses. The courtroom appearance was as striking as the charges themselves: al-Saadi spoke quietly but animatedly to his attorney, pressing him to understand his personal connection to the late Iranian General Qasem Soleimani — the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander killed in a US airstrike in Iraq — and declared himself both a prisoner of war and a political prisoner.

He was ordered detained. His next court date is May 29.

A One-Man Terror Network Spanning Two Continents

The federal criminal complaint reads like a dossier assembled from a geopolitical thriller — except every incident it describes is alleged to have actually happened. According to prosecutors, al-Saadi firebombed a Bank of New York Mellon building in Amsterdam, attempted to detonate improvised explosive devices at a Bank of America facility in Paris, coordinated assaults against Jewish institutions, and stabbed two people in London.

All of it, prosecutors allege, was carried out in retaliation for the US and Israeli war against Iran — and in a calculated attempt to pressure both governments into halting the conflict.

The complaint states that al-Saadi and his associates "planned, coordinated, and claimed responsibility for at least 18 terrorist attacks in Europe as well as two additional attacks in Canada" carried out under the banner of Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya — a component of Kata'ib Hizballah, the Iran-backed paramilitary group US authorities have designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

The Manhattan Synagogue Plot

Among the most chilling allegations in the complaint is what prosecutors describe as al-Saadi's attempt to bring his campaign of violence to American soil. According to federal authorities, al-Saadi allegedly pledged thousands of dollars to an individual he believed would carry out an attack against a synagogue in Manhattan — a plot that was intercepted when the would-be operative turned out to be an FBI undercover agent.

Al-Saadi is also accused of paying $3,000 and communicating directly with that undercover officer to plan additional attacks targeting locations in California and Arizona.

New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the disruption of the synagogue plot represented a critical intersection of federal and local law enforcement. "Working with our law enforcement partners, we disrupted a plan to attack a Manhattan synagogue, and in partnership with the synagogue's leadership, ensured its security when the threat was elevated," Tisch said in a statement.

Ties to Iran's Most Dangerous Networks

Al-Saadi is not, prosecutors allege, a lone wolf operating on ideological impulse. He is described in the complaint as a high-level member of Kata'ib Hizballah with documented ties to both the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah — a web of relationships that places him inside one of the most sophisticated and lethal proxy warfare structures operating in the world today.

Since the onset of the military conflict between the US, Israel, and Iran, al-Saadi allegedly "directed and urged others to attack US and Israeli interests, including by killing Americans and Jews, in retaliation for the Iranian Military Conflict and to further the terrorist goals of Kata'ib Hizballah and the IRGC," according to the criminal complaint.

Commissioner Tisch framed the case in its broadest geopolitical context. "This case puts into stark relief the global threats posed by the Iranian regime and its proxies like Kata'ib Hizballah — Foreign Terrorist Organizations that have repeatedly targeted Jewish communities across Europe and the United States since the war began," she said.

How He Was Caught — and What His Lawyer Said

Al-Saadi was apprehended in Turkey and transferred to American authorities, though his defense attorney, Andrew Dalack, a federal public defender, said he was unaware of any formal extradition proceedings having taken place.

"This is a bit of an unusual case," Dalack said — an understatement that barely grazes the surface of what the complaint alleges.

The mechanics of how a man allegedly directing attacks from European cities ended up in a Turkish detention facility and then in a Manhattan federal courtroom remain partially opaque. What is clear, according to prosecutors, is that at least one additional associate of al-Saadi is expected to be returned to the United States and face charges of their own.

The Reach of a Proxy War

What the al-Saadi case illuminates is something American law enforcement has been warning about for years: that the wars fought in the Middle East do not stay there. They travel — in the form of ideology, financing, operational directives, and, according to this complaint, firebombs and knives — into the heart of European cities and onto the streets of Manhattan.

Twenty attacks across two continents. A stabbed Jewish-American citizen. A synagogue in New York nearly added to the list. And at the center of it all, a man sitting quietly in a Manhattan courtroom, invoking the name of a dead general and calling himself a prisoner of war — as federal prosecutors prepare to prove otherwise.