Federal authorities on Friday announced the arrest of a senior commander of the Iran-backed Iraqi militia Kata’ib Hezbollah, accusing him of directing nearly 20 terrorist attacks across Europe and Canada and plotting to strike Jewish institutions in New York, Los Angeles, and Scottsdale, Arizona.

Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi was charged by criminal complaint with six terrorism-related offenses tied to his role as an operative of Kata’ib Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), both U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations. Al-Saadi was arrested overseas, transferred into U.S. custody, presented before U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn in Manhattan federal court and ordered detained pending trial.

The Justice Department said Al-Saadi and his associates planned, coordinated, and claimed responsibility for at least 18 terrorist attacks in Europe and two additional attacks in Canada, carried out in the name of Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya, which the DOJ described as a component of Kata’ib Hezbollah. 

Specific attacks cited by the Justice Department include a March 15 explosives attack on the Bank of New York Mellon in Amsterdam, an April 12 arson at a synagogue in North Macedonia, and an April 29 stabbing in London that seriously injured two Jewish men, including a dual U.S.-British citizen. Al-Saadi posted propaganda videos in which Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya claimed responsibility. 

The Iraqi national also attempted to coordinate attacks inside the United States, but he unwittingly made those plans with an undercover law enforcement officer. The plans included an attack on a prominent New York synagogue and Jewish institutions in Los Angeles and Scottsdale, according to the DOJ. Al-Saadi discussed with the undercover officer whether the New York synagogue should be attacked with an improvised explosive device or set on fire, the department said. 

The Justice Department described Kata’ib Hezbollah as a powerful Iraqi militia closely aligned with the IRGC and a recipient of extensive training, funding, logistical support, weapons and intelligence from the Qods Force. The group was formed after the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, became a leading faction in the Popular Mobilization Forces folded into Iraq’s security apparatus during the war against the Islamic State, and remains tied to the Iraqi government even as U.S. officials say it answers to Iran, according to The New York Times.