Iran/American citizen charged in connection with Iran drone strike that killed US servicemembers

Two Iranian men, including a dual Iranian American citizen, have been charged in connection with a fatal drone strike earlier this year that killed three U.S. military service members and injured dozens more. 

Mohammad Mahdi Sadeghi, who worked at a Massachusetts-based semiconductor company, was arrested in Massachusetts and Mohammad Abedini was arrested in Italy and was in the custody of Italian authorities, federal prosecutors said. Federal prosecutors are seeking Abedini’s extradition to Massachusetts. 

Both men are charged with export control violations. They are accused of exporting sensitive technology to Iran that was used in the fatal drone attack. Abedini faces additional charges of conspiring to provide material support to Iran.

“We often cite hypothetical risk when we talk about the dangers of American technology getting into dangerous hands,” said U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy. “Unfortunately, in this situation, we are not speculating.”

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Seen here from left to right are Sgt. Kennedy Sanders, Staff Sgt. William Jerome Rivers and Sgt. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett. These three U.S. Army Reserve soldiers were killed by a drone strike on their base in Jordan near the Syrian border on Jan. 28, 2024. (Shawn Sanders and U.S. Army via AP, File)

The charges are linked to the deadly Jan. 28 strike against U.S. forces, the first since the Israel-Hamas war began in October 2023.

The pair were arrested after the FBI analyzed the drone and traced the navigation system back to an Iranian company operated by Abedini. He relied on technology funneled from the U.S. by Sadeghi, officials said.

Sadehgi, a resident of the Boston suburb of Natick, “abandoned this country that took him in to help strengthen the arsenal of weapons,” used to target US service members, said Jodi Cohen, the FBI Special Agent in Charge of the Boston field office. 

Prosecutors allege that the company operated by Abedini makes navigation systems for drones and has connections to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). He allegedly conspired with Sadeghi to circumvent American export control laws, including through a front company in Switzerland, and procure sensitive technology into Iran.

Three Army reservists – Sgt. William Jerome Rivers; Spc. Kennedy Ladon Sanders and Spc. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, all Georgia residents – were killed on Jan. 28 in Jordan and 47 others were injured when a drone attacked a small military base known as Tower 22 near the Syrian and Iraqi border. 

U.S. Attorney District of Massachusetts Joshua Levy, right, faces reporters as Special Agent in Charge FBI, Boston Division Jodi Cohen, left, looks on during a news conference, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, at the federal courthouse, in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne) (AP)

All three were assigned to the 718th Engineer Company, 926th Engineer Battalion, 926th Engineer Brigade, in Fort Moore, Georgia. The soldiers were deployed in Jordan in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S. military’s name for the war against the Islamic State terror group.  

Rivers, 46, served in the Army Reserve as an interior electrician; while Sanders, 24, and Moffett, 23, worked as horizontal construction engineers. 

U.S. officials blamed the January attack on the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias that includes Kataib Hezbollah.

During the attack, a drone may have been mistaken for a U.S. drone that was expected to return to the logistics base about the same time and was not shot down. Instead, it crashed into living quarters, killing the three soldiers and injuring more than 40.

In response to the deadly attack, the U.S. launched retaliatory strikes on more than 85 targets in Iraq and Syria against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force and affiliated militia groups.

The targets included command and control operations, intelligence centers, militia group’s rockets, missiles, unmanned vehicle storages and supply chain facilities, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said at the time. 

A map depicting the location of Tower 22 in northeast Jordan, near the borders of Syria and Iraq.  (Fox News)

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The soldiers’ deaths marked an escalation of violence against U.S. forces in the Middle East. At the time, the Biden administration blamed the attacks on U.S. support for Israel amid its ongoing war against Hamas.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.