By Maryam Manzoori | 2025-04-26

The family of US citizen Stephen Troell, an English language teacher who was gunned down on a Baghdad street in November 2022, has joined 47 other plaintiffs to file a lawsuit in a US court against Iran and North Korea.

Troell was killed by a "hit squad" working for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), according to the US Justice Department.

The Troell family and others are now seeking damages for seven separate attacks that killed or injured US nationals across the Middle East, according to court documents filed April 9.

The lawsuit alleges Iran and North Korea provided critical funding, weapons and training to terrorist groups targeting US citizens -- among them, Troell, a husband and father dedicated to fostering cross-cultural understanding.

IRGC officer Mohammad Reza Nouri orchestrated the killing, according to court documents unsealed in December.

"Nouri is alleged to have gathered intelligence on Troell's daily routine and whereabouts," said Acting US Attorney Edward Kim.

He "procured weapons and vehicles, and provided safe harbor to the operatives who carried out the sinister plot to brutally attack Troell in front of his wife."

The Iranian regime is actively targeting US citizens around the world "for kidnapping and execution both to repress and silence dissidents critical of the regime and to take vengeance for the death of Qasem Soleimani," he added.

Nine-man hit squad

On the evening of the attack, heavily armed gunmen in two vehicles ambushed Troell's car near his home, blocking any escape route before shooting him as his wife watched from the passenger seat, according to the federal complaint.

Iraqi authorities arrested Nouri in March 2023, with four other members of the nine-man hit squad, according to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

All five were sentenced to life imprisonment by Karkh Criminal Court in August 2023 -- a compromise given their actions were legally punishable by death under Iraqi law, it said.

The Islamic Republic has made multiple unsuccessful attempts to secure Nouri's release, most recently by adding his name to a list for a proposed prisoner swap with Iraq.

The hitman who killed Troell -- identified as Ali Abdal-Ridha Salih Alwan al-Batbuti (aka Ali Fafona) -- remains at large along with four other attackers, according to the Washington Institute.

Iranian state media portrayed Nouri as a hero loyal to leader Ali Khamenei, even publishing photos of him with the late IRGC-Quds Force commander Soleimani.

"The IRGC is an organization with many faces," said Mehrnoosh, a former Iranian journalist now living in the United States.

"One part runs Ward 2-A of Evin prison and its intelligence detention centers, another operates in Iraq and Syria, and yet another is on the streets killing protesters," Mehrnoosh said.