Police are investigating whether a video of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei posted on the Google page for the US embassy in Oslo is linked to an explosion at the building.<\/p>\n
About the same time as the embassy in Norway was hit by a loud explosion in the early hours of Sunday morning, a video was posted showing Iran\u2019s late supreme leader<\/a>. A text in Farsi under the video said \u201cAllah is great, we are winning\u201d.<\/p>\n Norwegian<\/a> police are searching for a suspect seen on surveillance footage wearing dark clothing and carrying a bag or rucksack. The person\u2019s face was not visible under a hood.<\/p>\n The explosion damaged one of the entrances to the embassy, sending thick smoke into the street but causing no injuries.<\/p>\n In the past, Iran<\/a> has been accused of using teenagers hired through Swedish criminal<\/a>s, in particular the Foxtrot network controlled by Kurdish gangster Rawa Majid, to attack Israeli and Jewish targets in Stockholm and Copenhagen. The allegations have resulted in him being placed under sanctions<\/a> by the US.<\/p>\n Iran has also used criminal<\/a>s to target an opposition television station in the UK, leading to fears it could strike back against US and Israeli targets in Europe.<\/p>\n Experts have told The National that it is plausible Iran has hired a local criminal to carry out the attack and it fits into an established pattern of how it operates, including the posting of videos part of a psychological warfare.<\/p>\n The 15 second footage appears to consist of a clip of Mr Khamenei addressing a crowd and AI generated footage of him walking through an open door.<\/p>\n The text that runs over the video can be translated as: \u201cHas he gone? Where has he gone? He went again! He wanted to go again \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n The video was originally posted on an Instagram account called Amin Media, which describes itself as \u201cthe leader\u2019s fans\u201d. The Iran-based account\u2019s recent content includes images of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his son Mojtaba Khamenei<\/a>, who has been chosen to succeed his father.<\/p>\n Magnus Ranstorp, a researcher on terrorism at the Swedish Defence University, said the attack fits into a pattern of Iranian activity that has been seen Nordic countries.<\/p>\n \u201cSo it’s entirely feasible that this could be one of those attacks,\u201d he told The National.<\/p>\n \u201cIt could be some young criminal, who has been pressed to do this, or it could be that there is a supporter of Iran that wanted to do something to support the regime.<\/p>\n \u201cIran could be behind it, though I would suggest that they would probably also try to do something bigger, with more casualties.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr Ranstorp said the video was part of Iran\u2019s continuing attempts at destabilisation, which are linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps\u2019 shadowy Unit 840.<\/p>\n \u201cThis looks like psychological warfare by pro-Iranian hackers. There are serious operators in Europe that are part of the Iranian network surrounding Unit 840.\u201d<\/p>\n