Police investigate whether London arson attacks were planned for weeks | UK news

Detectives have been investigating whether a series of arson attacks in London were planned for weeks, with suspects scouting Jewish targets to firebomb.

Police said a series of attacks on synagogues and other Jewish targets, as well as a building linked to Iranian dissidents, were believed to have been carried out by criminals paid on behalf of Iran.

Attacks in London intensified last week as investigators believe criminals were likely recruited and given instructions online.

A group believed to be linked to Iran has released videos showing attacks so far in London, including the latest attack on a synagogue in Harrow, north-west London, on Saturday evening.

These attacks were apparently live-streamed to a “handler” and the footage was edited to be later broadcast in a propaganda video posted on Telegram by the group called Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia (Islamic Movement of the Right Companions).

Suspicion of foreign state intervention led the counter-terrorism police to take charge of the investigation and pursue the attackers and their directers.

Two young people, aged 17 and 19, were arrested on suspicion of arson in connection with the Harrow attack, and one suspect is still wanted.

Police said a group of three men were involved in the attack on the synagogue on Shaftesbury Avenue, Kenton, at around 11.35pm on Saturday.

Someone broke the window and then threw a tear gas bomb inside.

Police said there was minor damage and no one was injured, but the ultimate impact of a series of attacks in a short period of time is of further concern to British Jewish communities, which have suffered a huge rise in antisemitism since October 2023, when Israel was invaded, attacked and 1,200 of its citizens killed. The country responded by attacking Gaza, killing tens of thousands of people.

Police said 15 people have been arrested so far in connection with six attacks in London since March 23, when the first firebomb targeted four ambulances belonging to a Jewish charity in north London.

The past week has seen attacks on the synagogue in Harrow (a building once occupied by a Jewish educational charity), an attempt to use drones against the Israeli embassy, ​​an arson attack on an Iranian opposition media company and a synagogue in Finchley.

Iran’s strongly suspected role is under active investigation and Metropolitan police deputy commissioner Matt Jukes told LBC: “We will be looking incredibly closely at whether these allegations are valid.

“Their purpose is to intimidate, so we need to separate what is happening online, what is published and what is alleged, from what we can prove.

“But I think this is an extraordinary time. Unfortunately, we have seen hate crimes in our societies before, we have seen radicalization towards terrorism.

“But now we have the possibility that a foreign state could use this as a mechanism to create discord, discontent and anxiety in our societies.

“This is really disturbing.”

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was “horrified by the latest attempted anti-Semitic arson attacks in north London”.

Writing about X, Starmer added: “This is abhorrent and will not be tolerated. Attacks on our Jewish community are attacks on Britain.”

The Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia group, which claimed responsibility for the London attacks, also claimed responsibility for the attack on a synagogue in North Macedonia last Sunday and on a Jewish restaurant in Munich on April 10.

It first claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on Jewish targets in the Netherlands on March 13, following the start of the US attack on Iran, followed by an attack in Belgium and foiled in France.

Jukes called the criminal surrogates who were paid to carry out the violence “idiots”. Russia has become the first state to hire criminals to carry out an attack in the UK, using a chatbot to lure 21-year-old Dylan Earl, who was convicted of arson and sentenced to 17 years in prison. The penalty was higher than it should have been because the Earl was acting on behalf of a foreign state.