British police are probing a shadowy Islamic group amid arson spree at Jewish sites

After a series of arsons targeting Jewish sites in London, British authorities are investigating an obscure online group with possible links to Iran.

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The group, Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia, or HAYI, has claimed responsibility for at least eight arson attacks on Jewish venues in London and several others across Europe in recent weeks.

“As the conflict in the Middle East continues to evolve, counter-terrorism police and our partners remain aware of the threat of Iranian hostile activity in the UK,” Vicki Evans, the UK’s principal national counter-terrorism coordinator, told reporters on Sunday.

“We are aware of public reports suggesting that this group may have ties to Iran. As expected, we will continue to explore this matter as our investigation evolves.”

The latest attack took place overnight at the Kenton United Synagogue in Harrow, authorities said. The building suffered smoke damage, but there were no injuries, authorities said.

This is the third such incident in the past week, authorities said. Finchley’s Reform synagogue was the victim of an arson attack on Wednesday, London’s Metropolitan Police said, and on Friday a business in northwest London was the target of what police described as an “anti-Semitic hate crime.”

“We are seeing a concerted campaign against Londoners and, in particular, against British Jews,” Matt Jukes, the deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, told reporters.

In an interview with NBC News on Friday, Jukes said his police force is used to dealing with complex threats but that the current situation is particularly difficult.

“We’ve seen hate crimes, divisive protests. We’ve seen radicalization leading to terrorism and foreign interference,” he said. “All of these phenomena appeared at some point in the history of this city, but the way they align today is truly extraordinary.”

Jukes added: “We have this work to do now to verify whether there are any links between these incidents or whether they are part of a wider phenomenon that has already been seen, unfortunately, in terms of hate crimes or whether there is a more organized hand operating behind them. »

Terrorist group or front?

HAYI first appeared on social media in early March, days after the launch of US airstrikes against Iran. The group’s name roughly translates to the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Righteous.

She claimed responsibility for the March 9 attack on a synagogue in the Belgian city of Liège. A pipe bomb exploded outside the building around 4 a.m., blowing out windows but causing no injuries, authorities said.

HAYI posted a self-recorded video of the attack on a Telegram channel affiliated with a pro-Iranian militia in Iraq, according to the International Center for Counterterrorism, or ICCT, a Netherlands-based think tank.

HAYI also claimed responsibility for a March 13 attack on a synagogue in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and an explosion outside a Jewish school in Amsterdam the next day. In both cases, HAYI’s claims of responsibility were published within hours on Iran-aligned Telegram channels, according to the ICCT.

“The suspicious distribution patterns raise the question of whether HAYI is a real terrorist group or whether it simply serves as a front for Iranian hybrid operations that allow for plausible deniability,” the ICCT said in a report released last month.

Sajjan Gohel, a UK-based terrorism expert who follows HAYI, said he suspected the group was linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the main security arm of the Iranian government.

“The working hypothesis is that this is something closer to deniable outsourced sabotage, which the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps certainly excels at,” said Gohel, director of international security at the Asia-Pacific Foundation.

British police have made several arrests in connection with arson attacks.

Six people – including two teenagers, both aged 18 – were arrested in connection with a March 23 attack on a Jewish charity’s ambulances in north London. Two people – a 46-year-old man and a 47-year-old woman – have been arrested and charged over the attempted arson attack on Finchley Reform Synagogue on Wednesday.

One of the leads British detectives are investigating is whether those arrested in the arsons were hired by HAYI or an Iranian state actor.

“I have spoken at length about the Iranian regime’s systematic use of criminal proxies,” Evans, the counterterrorism coordinator, said Sunday. “We wonder if this tactic is being used here in London, of recruiting violence as a service. The individuals who commit these crimes often have no allegiance to the cause and quickly make money for their crimes.”

Jukes, the Met’s deputy commissioner, said anyone considering committing such crimes should expect to pay the consequences. He cited the case of a Briton, Dylan Earl, who was sentenced to 17 years in prison for burning down companies supplying satellite equipment to Ukraine – crimes committed at the behest of Russian intelligence services.

“They look really stupid, because whoever hired them is dropping them like a stone, and they’re left alone in our courts, facing justice,” Jukes told NBC News. “If we make that connection again in these cases, the same consequences will follow. »