A teenager has been arrested over a foiled bomb attack on the Bank of America office in Paris and is alleged to have been recruited on Snapchat.
The suspect, 17, is being held along with two others after an explosive device was placed at the front door of the bank at about 3.30am on Saturday. The teenager is alleged to have attempted to set off the device, which contained five litres of liquid fuel, while another suspect filmed him.
France's anti-terrorism prosecutor has taken over the investigation with the country's domestic intelligence service, the General Directorate for Internal Security, also involved.
The incident comes after a suspected arson attack on ambulances run by a Jewish group in London last weekend. There was an explosion at a Jewish school in Amsterdam this month, while synagogues in Rotterdam and Liege were also the targets of attacks involving explosive devices.
Responsibility for those incidents has been claimed by a group calling itself Harakat Ashab Al Yamin Al Islamia, or the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right Hand.
The group is widely believed to be a front for Iranian-backed attacks carried out by people recruited using social media. Le Parisien newspaper reported that the teenager, claimed to be of Senegalese descent, was paid €600 ($688) to carry out the attack and was previously convicted of drug-related offences.
A second suspect fled the scene when police arrived at the bank, in the city's 8th arrondissement, near the Champs-Elysees. He was later detained, along with a third man.
The anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office said it has been given more time to question the teenager. Under French law, suspects in terrorism cases can be held for 96 hours, but this can be extended by a court.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said there was "significant suspicion" Iran was behind attempted attack. “In this type of conflict, you have a number of Iranian services that are likely to carry out actions such as these through proxies,” he said. “There is a significant suspicion, but it is for the investigation to determine. There’s clearly a concerted effort.”
He added that “we’re making a very direct link” with the attacks that took place elsewhere in Europe. “You have an attack whose modus operandi is identical in every respect to the attacks carried out in the Netherlands, particularly in Belgium, which were successful,” he said.
Mr Nunez said Iranian intelligence services “operate this way, they use proxies, a whole network of agents”, including criminals.
Roger MacMillan, an expert on Iran’s external operations and espionage, told The National that the attack had “all the hallmarks” of Ashab Al Yamin and was “clearly linked" to Iran.
He said Snapchat was used to recruit minors “because it’s a secure messaging service that kids use and it’s easy to get hold of people”.
The foiled bank attack mirrors an incident at another US-linked bank in Amsterdam this month and an explosion at the World Trade Centre complex in the Dutch city.
French officials have said the Bank of America is under surveillance since it was named as a target by Ashab Al Yamin in a video released this month. Lucas Webber, co-founder of Militant Wire, said the group had no public presence before the start of the Iran war. It at first relied on channels connected to Tehran-backed groups including Hezbollah, before creating its own Telegram account to issue statements.
He explained that Ashab Al Yamin's logo – a raised hand gripping a rifle, superimposed on a globe – closely resembled iconography used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hezbollah and other Tehran-backed militias.
“Open‑source reporting increasingly portrays Ashab Al Yamin as either a new IRGC‑directed proxy, a cover label for existing Hezbollah or Iraqi‑militia networks, or a psychological‑operations vehicle,” he told The National.
