US Charges Iran Guard Captain With Murder

The US Justice Department has charged a captain in Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards with murder and terrorism offenses in the 2022 death of American Stephen Troell in Iraq.

Mohammad Reza Nouri, 36, helped plan an attack on Troell, 45, who was working at an English language institute in central Baghdad, according to a complaint unsealed in US Federal Court in Manhattan.

The attack was carried out in retaliation for the US killing of the Revolutionary Guards’ top commander Qassem Soleimani in a 2020 drone strike, according to the complaint.

“The Department of Justice will not tolerate terrorists and authoritarian regimes targeting and murdering Americans anywhere in the world,” Attorney General Merrick, Garland said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Nouri is already in custody in Iraq after being convicted, along with four Iraqis, in that country for Troell’s murder.

All five were sentenced to life in prison in Iraq last year.

Nouri is facing eight charges in US court, including murder of a U.S. national and providing material support to terrorism resulting in death. The United States considers the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization.

It was not yet clear if Nouri had an attorney. Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The complaint accuses Nouri of collecting personal information on Troell, whom he appears to have believed was an American or Israeli intelligence officer, and recruiting operatives to target him.

Troell was shot and killed on November 7, 2022, after a heavily armed gunman forced him to stop while he was driving home with his wife, according to US authorities.

REUTERS/Christopher Ojilere