US detains two Iranians linked to deadly drone strike

NEW YORK: US officials announced on Monday the arrest of two Iranian nationals over alleged export violations tied to a drone strike that killed three American soldiers. 

More than 40 other service members were injured in a drone attack at a Jordanian military base near the Syrian border in January, the Pentagon said at the time of the incident.

The two men, one an Iranian and the other a naturalised American-Iranian, allegedly colluded to ship navigational components to Iran which were used in the drone that executed the strike.

“We often cite hypothetical risk when we talk about the dangers of American technologies getting into dangerous hands,” said Joshua Levy, the United States Attorney for Massachusetts.

“Unfortunately, in this situation, we are not speculating, as alleged in this criminal complaint, the grave potential damage from the leak of American technology overseas came to fruition approximately 11 months ago.”

Mohammad Abedininajafabadi was arrested by the FBI in Italy and US authorities are seeking his extradition after he allegedly procured sophisticated US-made navigation technology, circumventing export laws.

Iranian-American Mahdi Sadeghi works for a US company making precision navigational aides and allegedly colluded with Abedininajafabadi to use a shell company in Switzerland to ship restricted items from his firm to Iran. He was arrested in Massachusetts.

“We believe both men conspired illegally to export sensitive technology from a semiconductor manufacturer headquartered in Massachusetts to Iran using a front company in Switzerland owned by Abedini,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Jodi Cohen using a shortened name for Abedininajafabadi.

“Abedini is also the owner of an Iranian based company that makes navigation systems for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, a designated foreign terrorist organisation.

“The FBI analyzed the drone that struck (in Jordan) killing three American soldiers, and found the navigation system used in this deadly attack was allegedly manufactured by Abedini’s company.”

Approximately 350 US Army and Air Force personnel were deployed to the base when the attack happened, the Pentagon said in a statement at the time.

“The three soldiers were killed when a one-way uncrewed aerial system impacted their container housing units,” it added, apparently describing exploding drones.