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Police are investigating whether street gangs are being paid by Iran to attack Jewish and opposition groups and people in London.
An organisation suspected to be a front for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps claimed responsibility for fire bombings of Jewish groups and a synagogue.
Two teenagers, aged 17 and 19, have been arrested in connection with the incident at the Kenton United Synagogue, in north London, which happened around midnight on Sunday.
Responsibility for the attack was once again claimed by Harakat Ashab Al Yamin Al Islamia, or Ashab Al Yamin, which translates to the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right Hand.
The group also said it was behind an attacks on the former offices of the Jewish Futures charity and the Israeli embassy on Friday.
Most of the London attacks have all taken place in an area of London where there is a large Jewish community and are being investigated by counter-terrorism police
The incidents are the latest a string of arson attacks in the UK and Europe that Ashab Al Yamin has claimed to be behind. So far, those arrested are either teenage boys or men in their early 20s.
The Met Police’s deputy commissioner Matt Jukes said recent weeks have seen a “concerted campaign” against the UK’s Jewish communities.
He said the force has made 15 arrests in relation to a series of six incidents, which also include an arson attack on a Jewish-led ambulance service.
Mr Jukes told the BBC that Iranian direction of the attacks in the UK is a “very serious line of inquiry”.
“We’ve seen a pattern with other actors of thugs for hire, people taking cash as it looks like quick and easy money.
The deputy commission quoted the example of Dylan Earl, who is serving a 17-year prison sentence for acting on behalf of the Wagner group, as an example of British citizen being hired to carry out acts of violence for a foreign state,
“This is part of the modern hybrid war fought by proxies,” said Mr Jukes, referring to countries such as Iran and Russia are seeking to destabilise western societies.
Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis called it “a cowardly arson attack” and said “a sustained campaign of violence and intimidation against the Jewish community of the UK is gathering momentum”.
Who exactly Ashab Al Yamin are is unclear. The group has been spreading videos of the attacks it says its behind through its own Telegram channel and those linked to Iranian-aligned Iraq Shia militias.
Roger MacMillan, the former head of security at Iran International and an expert on Tehran’s use of proxies, believes attacks represent a shift in the way in which terrorism is being conducted.
Organisations with former structures, such as the Irish Republican Army, are being replaced with the so-called violence as a service model, in which individuals are recruited online and paid to carry out attacks.
The model was first identified by police in Sweden, where the Foxtrot criminal network founded by Kurdish gangster Rawa Majid, used teenagers to carry out attacks on rivals.
The Foxtrot network was contractedby Iran to recruit youngsters to carry out attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets, which Mr MacMillan says is now being seen in the UK.
“I think the evidence is there. Whether or not it's state linked has yet to be properly confirmed but it has all the hallmarks of violence as a service,” he told The National.
“This is low level thuggery in which individuals are being hired to carry out antisemitic attacks.
“It’s unlikely they are motivated by ideology but are doing it for cash. Also some of these kids have got nothing better to do and think it’s a bit of a laugh. I call it terrorism by texting.”
Quick cash
He said this faceless nature of groups such as Ashab Al Yamin and fact that those being recruited appear to have no ties to Iran makes it hard for law enforcement to tackle.
“It's incredibly difficult for the police to combat - you can't cut off the recruiters,” he said.
Speaking after the synagogue attack, senior counter-terrorism police officer Vicki Evans said investigators “remain alive to the threat of Iranian state aggression in the UK” and the violence as a service was a factor in recruitment.
“I have spoken at length of the Iranian regime’s routine uses of criminal proxies,” said Ms Evans.
“We are considering whether this tactic is being used here in London - recruiting violence as a service.
“Individuals carrying out these crimes often have no allegiance to the cause and are taking quick cash for their crimes.”
