A commander of Kataib Hezbollah, an Iraqi militia that is a proxy for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, has been charged with plotting to attack Jewish sites in the United States, according to a criminal complaint unsealed on Friday.

The complaint, filed in the Federal District Court in Manhattan, accuses the commander, Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, of planning at least 20 attacks against U.S. and Israeli interests in Europe and Canada since late February. It has cast a spotlight on the militia, one of the most hard-line and powerful Iranian proxies in Iraq.

The group’s reach beyond the Middle East is not clear. It does not have a history of organizing attacks outside the region, and experts say the plots to attack the U.S. mainland cited in the complaint would be a significant departure for the militia.

Rocket and Drone Attacks

The militia was founded after the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, which spurred an effort by Iran’s theocratic regime to recruit, train and arm Iraqi Shiite militias to attack American troops on Iraqi soil.

With Iran’s backing, the militia has continued to exert power. Amid the American military campaign in Iran this spring, Kataib Hezbollah launched near-daily drone and rocket attacks on U.S. targets in Iraq and neighboring countries like Jordan and Kuwait.