The US accuses an Iranian citizen of the murder of an American in Baghdad (Iraq)

The United States Department of Justice has charged an Iranian citizen with the murder of American Stephen Troell, who died in 2022 after an assault by armed men on his vehicle in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

Troell, according to the Iraqi government, had been living in the capital for two years and had worked for a civil society organization that taught English to Iraqis.

This past Friday, the Department of Justice identified the Iranian Mohamad Reza Nuri as being involved in the crime. Nuri, the United States claims, was actually a member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard operating under the alias ‘Abu Abbas’.

The assassination, the Department says in its statement, published on its website, was conceived as retaliation for the death of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, architect of the Islamic republic’s foreign military policy, in a US attack in Baghdad in 2020.

“Nuri gathered information and coordinated with an accomplice to obtain supplies that the operatives depended on during their attack on Troell,” said David Sundberg, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office.

The Iranian national was arrested in Iraq in March 2023, according to the Justice Department indictment, and has remained detained there since then. Iran has not commented on the matter.