{"id":539616,"date":"2026-04-19T15:49:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T15:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/539616\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T15:49:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T15:49:14","slug":"u-k-police-examine-iran-links-to-arson-attacks-on-jewish-targets-after-london-synagogue-is-targeted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/539616\/","title":{"rendered":"U.K. police examine Iran links to arson attacks on Jewish targets after London synagogue is targeted"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Police forensic officers work inside a cordon set up near the Kenton United Synagogue in Harrow, London on Sunday.JUSTIN TALLIS\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

British police said they are investigating possible Iran links to a series of arson attacks on Jewish targets in London, which the U.K. chief rabbi said showed a sustained campaign of violence against the Jewish community was gathering momentum. After the latest attack, at Kenton United Synagogue in the Harrow area of the city shortly after midnight, the third such incident in a week, U.K. counterterrorism police said they were heading up investigations into the incidents.<\/p>\n

A pro-Iranian government group, which says it is also behind a spate of attacks across Europe on U.S., Israeli and Jewish targets, has said it was responsible.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the conflict in the Middle East continues to evolve, counterterrorism policing and our partners remain alive to the threat of Iranian hostile activity in the U.K.,\u201d Vicki Evans, Britain\u2019s senior national co-ordinator for Counter Terrorism Policing, told reporters.<\/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

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Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said the Kenton fire, which did not cause any significant damage, was the third \u201ccowardly\u201d attack on Jewish sites in the British capital in less than a week.<\/p>\n

\u201cA sustained campaign of violence and intimidation against the Jewish community of the U.K. is gathering momentum,\u201d Mirvis said on X. \u201cThank God, no lives have been lost, but we cannot, and must not, wait for that to change before we understand just how dangerous this moment is for all of our society.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Friday night, there was an attempted arson attack on a business premises with links to the Jewish community, while a few days earlier police arrested two suspects over an attempted arson attack on another synagogue in the capital.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile an area around the Israeli embassy in London was cordoned off following an online report that it had been targeted with drones carrying \u201cdangerous substances.\u201d Police later said items they found did not contain any harmful or hazardous substances.<\/p>\n

Last month, several ambulances belonging to the Jewish volunteer emergency service Hatzola, which were parked near a synagogue in Golders Green, were torched.<\/p>\n

Police said they had boosted their presence in the area, and it was officers on a \u201cdeterrence\u201d patrol shortly after midnight who spotted a window at the Kenton synagogue had been damaged. They found an accelerant had been thrown inside.<\/p>\n

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was appalled by the attempted antisemitic arson attacks. \u201cThis is abhorrent and it will not be tolerated. Attacks on our Jewish community are attacks on Britain,\u201d he wrote on X.<\/p>\n

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The pro-Iranian group Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiyya (HAYI) or Movement of the Companions of the Right Hand of Islam, has said it is responsible, and posted a video purporting to show the attack on the Kenton synagogue on social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis same group has claimed several incidents over recent months at places of worship, business and financial institutions across Europe,\u201d Evans said. \u201cThese locations all appear to be linked to Jewish or Israeli interests.\u201d<\/p>\n

British police and security services have warned for a number of years of Iran hiring proxies to carry out attacks on its behalf. Last month, two men were charged with being tasked by Tehran to carry out hostile surveillance on the Israeli Embassy and other Jewish targets.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is recruiting violence as a service, and the people who conduct that violence often have little or no allegiance to the cause and are taking quick cash for their crimes,\u201d Evans said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Police forensic officers work inside a cordon set up near the Kenton United…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":539617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1399,1387,1400,390,1377,1401,626,1376,1392,1393,1389,1378,1375,1294,1398,1397,1391,1385,59,1412,1379,1380,80,57,58,1388,655,1382,1402,1383,1407,1408,50,1410,1405,1409,1403,1406,1381,1395,1396,229,1394,1404,1386,86,387,1390,56,54,55,1384,231,1411],"class_list":{"0":"post-539616","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-canada-news","16":"tag-canada-sports","17":"tag-canada-sports-news","18":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","19":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","20":"tag-canadian-news","21":"tag-economy","22":"tag-education","23":"tag-environment","24":"tag-federal-government","25":"tag-foreign-news","26":"tag-gb","27":"tag-globe-and-mail","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","29":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","30":"tag-government","31":"tag-great-britain","32":"tag-greatbritain","33":"tag-life-news","34":"tag-lifestyle","35":"tag-local-news","36":"tag-manitoba","37":"tag-national-news","38":"tag-new-brunswick","39":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","40":"tag-news","41":"tag-northwest-territories","42":"tag-nova-scotia","43":"tag-nunavut","44":"tag-ontario","45":"tag-pei","46":"tag-photos","47":"tag-political-news","48":"tag-political-opinion","49":"tag-politics","50":"tag-politics-news","51":"tag-quebec","52":"tag-sports-news","53":"tag-technology","54":"tag-travel","55":"tag-trudeau","56":"tag-uk","57":"tag-united-kingdom","58":"tag-unitedkingdom","59":"tag-us-news","60":"tag-world-news","61":"tag-yukon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}