LONDON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0U.K. police said Sunday they are investigating whether a string of arson attacks on Jewish sites in London are the work of Iranian proxies, as the country\u2019s chief rabbi said British Jews are facing a campaign of violence and intimidation.<\/p>\n
The Metropolitan Police force says counterterror officers are probing fires at synagogues and other sites linked to the Jewish community, as well as an attack on a Persian-language media company.<\/p>\n
No one has been injured in the blazes, the latest of which caused minor damage to a north London synagogue on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Vicki Evans said the attacks had been claimed online by a group calling itself Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are aware of public reporting that suggests this group may have links to Iran. As you would expect, we will continue to explore that question as our investigation evolves,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve spoken previously about the Iranian regime\u2019s use of criminal proxies, and we\u2019re considering whether this tactic is being used here in London,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s government has described Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia, whose name means the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right, as a recently founded group with suspected links to \u201can Iranian proxy\u201d that has also claimed responsibility for synagogue attacks in Belgium and the Netherlands.<\/p>\n
The police force has deployed extra uniformed and plainclothes officers to northwest London after attacks in the past month on synagogues, Jewish charity ambulances and a Persian-language media organization critical of Iran\u2019s government.<\/p>\n
In the most serious incident, four ambulances belonging to a Jewish charity were torched on March 23 in the Golders Green neighborhood,<\/p>\n
No one has been injured in any of the incidents, which all happened within a few miles of each other. Several people, ranging in age from teens to people in their 40s, have been arrested and charged.<\/p>\n
Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said on X that \u201ca sustained campaign of violence and intimidation against the Jewish community of the UK is gathering momentum.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank God, no lives have been lost, but we cannot, and must not, wait for that to change before we understand just how dangerous this moment is for all of our society,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was \u201cappalled\u201d by the attacks, and pledged that \u201cthose responsible will be found and brought to justice.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is abhorrent and it will not be tolerated. Attacks on our Jewish community are attacks on Britain,\u201d Starmer said.<\/p>\n
Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia also posted a video claiming Israel\u2019s London embassy was going to be attacked with drones carrying dangerous substances. Police said the embassy was not attacked, but the force shut the nearby Kensington Gardens park on Friday as officers examined discarded items including two jars containing powder. Police said nothing harmful was found.<\/p>\n
The U.K. has accused Iran of using criminal proxies to conduct attacks on European soil targeting opposition media outlets and the Jewish community. Britain\u2019s MI5 domestic intelligence service says that more than 20 \u201cpotentially lethal\u201d Iran-backed plots were disrupted in the year to October.<\/p>\n
Some security experts say Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia is likely a flag of convenience rather than a coherent group, and its claims should be treated with caution.<\/p>\n
Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner Matt Jukes said any \u201cthugs for hire\u201d who carried out such attacks would face justice.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s be really clear \u2014 it\u2019s a mug\u2019s game,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s what people who are now serving long prison sentences have found out, and the same fate awaits those responsible for these recent crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lawless writes for the Associated Press. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0U.K. police said Sunday they are investigating whether a string of arson attacks on Jewish sites in London…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[8033,8031,8036,8035,8032,24,8034,3691,8038,27,8039,7972,8037,7975,1197],"class_list":{"0":"post-17308","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-al-islamia","9":"tag-arson-attack","10":"tag-counterterror-officer","11":"tag-group","12":"tag-harakat-ashab","13":"tag-iran","14":"tag-iranian-proxy","15":"tag-jewish-community","16":"tag-jewish-site","17":"tag-london","18":"tag-several-people","19":"tag-synagogue","20":"tag-u-k-police","21":"tag-violence","22":"tag-work"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116432764191764506","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}