{"id":400993,"date":"2026-04-20T01:57:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T01:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/400993\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T01:57:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T01:57:10","slug":"british-police-are-probing-a-shadowy-islamic-group-amid-arson-spree-at-jewish-sites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/400993\/","title":{"rendered":"British police are probing a shadowy Islamic group amid arson spree at Jewish sites"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a spate of arson attacks targeting Jewish sites<\/a> in London, British authorities are investigating a shadowy online group with possible ties to Iran. <\/p>\n

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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 locations in London and several others across Europe in recent weeks. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs the conflict in the Middle East continues to evolve, counterterrorism police and our partners remain alive to the threat of Iranian hostile activity in the U.K.,\u201d Vicki Evans, the U.K.\u2019s senior national coordinator for counterterrorism, told reporters Sunday. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are aware of public reporting that suggests this group may have links to Iran. As you would expect, we will continue to explore that question as our investigation evolves.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ThreeChildren survey an area cordoned off by police near Kenton United Synagogue in Harrow, northwest London, on Sunday. Justin Tallis \/ AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The latest attack took place overnight at Kenton United Synagogue in Harrow, authorities said. The building sustained smoke damage, but there were no injuries, officials said. <\/p>\n

It was the third such incident over the past week, authorities said. Finchley Reform Synagogue faced an arson attack Wednesday, London Metropolitan Police said, and on Friday a business in northwest London was targeted in what police have described as an \u201cantisemitic hate crime.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are seeing a concerted campaign against Londoners and, specifically, against British Jews,\u201d Matt Jukes, the deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, told reporters. <\/p>\n

In an interview with NBC News on Friday, Jukes said that his police force is used to dealing with complex threats but that the current situation is uniquely challenging.<\/p>\n

\"ThreeDeputy Metropolitan Police Commissioner Matt Jukes, center, at a news briefing outside Kenton United Synagogue on Sunday.James Manning \/ PA Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have seen hate crime, divisive protests. We have seen radicalization towards terrorism, and we\u2019ve seen foreign interference,\u201d he said. \u201cAll of those phenomena have appeared at some point in the history of this city, but the way that they are aligned now is truly extraordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jukes added: \u201cWe do have that work to do now to test whether there are any connections between these incidents or whether they\u2019re part of that wider phenomenon that has already been seen, sadly, in terms of hate crimes or whether there is a more organized hand operating behind them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Terrorist group or facade?<\/p>\n

HAYI first appeared on social media in early March, days after the U.S. launched air strikes against Iran. The group\u2019s name roughly translates to the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Righteous.<\/p>\n

It claimed responsibility for a March 9 attack on a synagogue in the Belgian city of Liege. A makeshift bomb detonated outside the building around 4 a.m., blowing out windows but causing no injuries, officials said.<\/p>\n

\"APolice forensic officers investigate an attempted arson attack in Hendon on Saturday. Alishia Abodunde \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

HAYI published self-recorded video of the attack on a Telegram channel affiliated with a pro-Iranian militia group in Iraq, according to the International Center for Counter-Terrorism, or ICCT, a Netherlands-based think tank.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s claims of responsibility were released on Iranian-aligned Telegram channels within hours, according to ICCT. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe suspicious dissemination patterns raise the question whether HAYI is a genuine terrorist group or merely serves as a fa\u00e7ade for Iranian hybrid operations that enable plausible deniability,\u201d ICCT said in a report published last month<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sajjan Gohel, a U.K-based terrorism expert who has been tracking HAYI, said he suspects the group is linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the primary security arm of the Iranian government.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe working hypothesis is that this is something closer to outsourced, deniable sabotage, which the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps certainly excels in,\u201d said Gohel, who is the international security director at the Asia-Pacific Foundation.<\/p>\n

British police have made several arrests in the arson attacks. <\/p>\n

Six people \u2013 including two teenagers, both 18 \u2013 have been arrested in connection with a March 23 attack on a Jewish charity’s ambulances<\/a> in north London. Two people \u2014 a 46-year-old man and a 47-year-old woman \u2014 have been arrested and accused of carrying out the attempted arson of Finchley Reform Synagogue on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\"ALaw enforcement outside Finchley Reform Synagogue following another suspected arson attack in the North Finchley area of London last week.Toby Shepheard \/ AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

One of the avenues detectives in the U.K. are looking into is whether the people arrested in the arson incidents have been hired by HAYI or an Iranian state actor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have spoken at length of the Iranian regime\u2019s routine uses of criminal proxies,\u201d Evans, the counterterrorism coordinator, said Sunday. \u201cWe are considering whether this tactic is being used here in London \u2014 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jukes, the Met deputy commissioner, said anyone who might consider carrying out such crimes should expect to pay the consequences. He referenced the case of a British man, Dylan Earl, who was sentenced to 17 years in prison for setting fire to businesses providing satellite equipment to Ukraine \u2013\u00a0crimes carried out at the behest of Russian intelligence operatives. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey are left looking really foolish, because those who\u2019ve hired them drop them like a stone, and they end up in our courts facing justice on their own,\u201d Jukes told NBC News. \u201cIf we make that connection in these cases again, then the same consequences will follow.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a spate of arson attacks targeting Jewish sites in London, British authorities are investigating a shadowy online…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-400993","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}