The United Kingdom’s Metropolitan Police are investigating whether a recent spate of arson attacks on Jewish sites in North London could be linked to Iranian proxies. Counter Terrorism Policing is leading investigations into the incidents, the Met Police said on Sunday, after an arson attack at the Kenton United Synagogue in northwestern London occurred overnight. There have been no injuries in the blazes, the latest of which caused minor damage.
Vicki Evans, deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said most of the attacks have been claimed by the Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia group (Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right), often shortened to Ashab al-Yamin. She said the group has also claimed several incidents at places of worship as well as business and financial institutions in Europe in recent months. Evans said police were aware of “public reporting that this group may have links to Iran”.
She added that she has spoken before about Iran’s “routine uses of criminal proxies” and police were considering whether this tactic of “recruiting violence as a service” was being used in London. Ashab al-Yamin emerged online in March and has claimed responsibility for several attacks on Jewish sites in Europe. It also claimed responsibility for an attack on the Persian-language Iran International news channel in London.
Recent arson incidents in London have included a bottle containing accelerant being thrown inside the Finchley Reform Synagogue in North London on Wednesday and Jewish-owned Hatzola ambulances being set alight in the car park of a synagogue in Golders Green on March 23. On Friday night, a man tried to light a bag containing three bottles of fluid outside the former premises of the Jewish Futures charity in Hendon. The UK’s chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, said the Kenton fire was the third “cowardly” attack on Jewish sites in the British capital in less than a week.
Attacks on our Jewish community are attacks on Britain,” he said in a post on X.
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