The U.S. Justice Department announced charges against an Iranian and an Iranian-American on Monday for a drone attack in Jordan that killed three U.S. troops.
Mahdi Mohammad Sadeghi, 42, of Natick, Mass., and Mohammad Abedini, 38, of Tehran, are accused of illegally exporting components for the navigation equipment that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps uses to pilot its kamikaze drones.
“These perpetrators allegedly facilitated the transfer of electronic components to an Iranian company which one of them owned,” stated Paul Abbate, deputy director of the FBI. “According to the charges, the company owner then supplied the IRGC with drone technology that was used in various terrorist acts, including an attack on a U.S. military base in Jordan which killed three servicemembers and injured dozens more.”
In January, IRGC-backed Iraqi militiamen launched a drone attack against Tower 22, a U.S. military outpost in the far northeastern corner of Jordan. The attack killed three American soldiers from an Army Reserve unit based in Georgia and wounded more than 40 others.
The FBI arrested Sadeghi in Massachusetts on Monday, the same day that Abedini was arrested in Italy at the request of the United States.
According to the FBI, the pair established companies in the United States, Switzerland and Iran to export sensitive electronics to a company that Abedini owns and that manufactures the Sepehr Navigation System that the IRGC uses in drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles.
FBI analysis of a drone that was recovered from the Tower 22 attack showed that the drone was an Iranian Shahed unmanned aerial vehicle and that the navigation system used in the drone was the Sepehr system and was manufactured by Abedini’s company.
Sadeghi was charged with one count of conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison. Abedini was charged with the same and with conspiracy to provide and provision of material support to a foreign terrorist organization resulting in death, which carries up to a life sentence.