Iranian Officer Faces Murder and Terrorism Charges for 2022 Killing of American in Iraq

NEW YORK—An Iranian officer implicated in the 2022 assassination of an American in Iraq has been charged in New York with federal murder and terrorism offenses, authorities announced on Friday.

Officials from New York City stated that Mohammad Reza Nouri, a captain in Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, faces multiple charges related to terrorism and murder in a Manhattan federal court that could result in life imprisonment. One of the charges even has the potential for the death penalty.

Nouri, 36, is currently detained in Iraq, where he has already been sentenced by an Iraqi court for his involvement in the killing of Stephen Troell, authorities reported.

Troell, originally from Tennessee, was shot in his vehicle by unidentified gunmen as he approached his home in the central Karrada district of Baghdad. He was employed at the Global English Institute, a language school located in Baghdad’s Harthiya neighborhood, which operated under the auspices of Millennium Relief and Development Services, a Texas-based non-governmental organization.

Such an assassination of a foreigner in Iraq is uncommon, particularly as security conditions have improved in recent years.

Acting U.S. Attorney Edward Y. Kim stated in a release that Nouri was responsible for orchestrating Troell’s murder in Baghdad in November 2022.

According to the prosecutor, “Nouri is accused of gathering intelligence on Troell’s daily activities and location, acquiring weapons and vehicles, and offering protection to the individuals who executed the heinous attack on Troell in front of his wife.”

The prosecutor also noted that the “Iranian regime is systematically targeting U.S. citizens, such as Troell, living abroad for kidnapping and execution, both to silence dissenters critical of the regime and to retaliate” for the death of Qassem Soleimani, an Iranian military leader killed by an American drone strike in January 2020.

U.S. government documents indicate that Nouri, along with a coconspirator, celebrated the murder on the day it occurred and left Iraq for Iran that same night. It was also noted that shortly before his departure, Nouri visited a site of religious significance associated with mourning Soleimani’s death.

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland declared that the Justice Department “will not stand idly by while terrorists and authoritarian regimes target and kill Americans anywhere in the world.”

Last month, the Justice Department revealed an Iranian murder-for-hire scheme aimed at assassinating President-elect Donald Trump, stating that an individual had been instructed by an Iranian government official to devise a plan for the Republican president-elect’s assassination prior to the election.

Esmail Baghaei, a spokesperson for the Iranian foreign ministry in Tehran, dismissed the report as a fabrication by entities linked to Israel, aimed at complicating Iran-U.S. relations, according to the official IRNA news agency.

He claimed that similar previous allegations had been rejected by Iran once their “inaccuracy” was demonstrated.

By Larry Neumeister