A medical room in a synagogue in northwest London was set on fire ten days after an apparent petrol bomb attack. An online group claiming ownership of the arson attacks describes itself as targeting 'Zionist' interests. An investigation by CNN found apparent links between the online group and an Iran-backed Shia paramilitary group, with Iran-linked operatives also recruiting individuals to carry out attacks against sites linked to the Jewish community in Europe.
The walls of the medical room are charred black and the door appears to have melted half away in the flames. Ten days after an apparent petrol bomb was hurled through the synagogue window in the middle of the night, the smell of smoke still catches in the back of the throat.
When Rabbi Yehuda Black returned the morning after the attack on what he calls his “gem” of a synagogue — with its wall of stained-glass windows and a ceiling carved with Stars of David — he said he was overwhelmed with emotion.
“It’s only the medical room. We can replace it, we can redecorate,” he says.
“But what could have happened — that’s what’s really hard. ” The Kenton United Synagogue, in northwest London, was one of a string of mainly Jewish sites struck in arson attacks across the British capital and other European cities in the past two months, including schools, businesses and volunteer-run ambulances.
At least 17 incidents have been claimed by a shadowy online group calling itself Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia , roughly translated from Arabic as “The Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right” – which only emerged online in March and says it’s targeting “Zionist” interests. A CNN investigation has found apparent links between HAYI and an Iran-backed Shia paramilitary group.
It has also found that what appear to be Iran-linked operatives are using social media to attempt to recruit individuals to carry out surveillance and potential violence against sites linked to the Jewish community in Europe. Posing as a young, London-based Telegram users, CNN journalists found channels advertising themselves as Iranian intelligence operating in plain sight.
One posted in English and Hebrew that it was looking to recruit “high-paid agents in a completely secure and professional environment with 24/7 monitoring and support. ” In an exchange of messages with CNN, the “VIPEmployment” Telegram account said it was looking to “hire anyone who can harm Israeli interests or individuals.
” On another account linked to the channel, a user calling themself Sina offered money in return for putting up posters in London criticizing US President Donald Trump and the US-Israeli war with Iran, offering advice such as “you need to check and do it in a place where there are no security cameras. ” The CNN team decided to end the conversations there and cannot confirm any direct link between the accounts and the Iranian state or its proxies.
But the messages illustrate how, within a few clicks, social media users looking for clandestine income could potentially be drawn into pathways leading to violence or espionage. Israeli espionage cases Experts say it’s possible such interactions may form part of a multi-layered operational structure, with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps ultimately directing activity.
“You’ve got a potential model where at the very top you have the IRGC or IRGC-linked organizations,” said Roger Macmillan, former head of security at Iran International, a London-based Iranian opposition media outlet that was also targeted in an arson attack claimed by HAYI in April. “You have another layer who will do the recruitment and then you have the bottom layer – the unskilled, the thugs for hire.
” While CNN’s conversation with the “VIPEmployment” channel on Telegram quickly ended, others are alleged to have taken their interactions much further. Authorities in Israel allege a Telegram channel with the same name was used by Iran to recruit Israelis to spy on sensitive sites and individuals in exchange for money.
According to two separate indictments against Israeli individuals accused of espionage, Telegram users connected to the “VIPEmployment” channel assigned the men initial tasks similar in nature to the one offered to CNN. The Israeli men were asked to write derogatory slogans about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on pieces of paper and film themselves burning them.
Prosecutors claim the suspects went on to carry out increasingly serious information-gathering tasks in return for payment at the request of their handlers on Telegram, who were acting on behalf of Iranian intelligence. One man is accused of secretly filming inside the hospital where former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was being treated.
The other allegedly filmed the Shin Bet internal security service headquarters as well as multiple Israel Defense Forces bases and other sensitive sites, before sending footage to his handler. While the second man was serving as an IDF reservist, according to his indictment, his handler asked him to assassinate his commander in exchange for around $33,000. He did not take up that alleged assignment. Neither has yet entered a plea or submitted a defense.
Israel has been facing an unprecedented wave of domestic espionage since 2023, an official there told CNN, and at least 60 Israelis have been indicted on charges of spying for Iran. Several of the sites which prosecutors say were filmed by these alleged recruits have been targeted in Iranian missile attacks on Israel over the past year.
Alleged links to Iraqi Shia groups In London, police continue to investigate the attacks claimed by HAYI and say they are examining whether Iran has been using criminal proxies to carry them out.
“We are considering whether this tactic is being used here in London –– recruiting violence as a service,” said Deputy Assistant Commissioner Vicki Evans, Senior National Co-ordinator of Counter Terrorism Policing for the Metropolitan Police. “Individuals carrying out these crimes often have no allegiance to the cause and are taking quick cash for their crimes,” she said. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Tuesday that authorities were looking at whether a “foreign state” was behind some of the incidents.
“Our message to Iran or to any other country that might seek to foment violence, hatred, or division in society is that it will not be tolerated,” he said. A 17-year-old from northwest London pleaded guilty last month to a charge of arson not endangering life at the Kenton synagogue and is due back in court in June.
In a court statement, he said he had no idea the building was a synagogue and that he had “no hate toward the Jewish people. ” HAYI also claimed responsibility for an incident in Antwerp in March, where a car was set on fire at night in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood.
The lawyer for one of the two suspects in the case, Chantal Van den Bosch, told CNN her client, aged 17, had been promised money and served merely as “cannon fodder. ” His parents had told a juvenile court he was “used” and had no intention of dividing the community, she said. She claimed he did not have any ideological motive.
Belgian prosecutors said in March that the pair were being investigated on suspicion of arson and participation in the activities of a terrorist group and have not released further details on the case. Posts claiming both attacks first appeared on social media channels that experts say are linked to Iraqi Shia groups.
Two days before HAYI claimed its first attack – in Liege, Belgium, in March – one of the channels teased a reference to the group’s name: “Ashab al-Yamin, soon…” In messages with CNN, the administrator of one Telegram channel associated with Iranian-backed Iraqi groups confirmed their superior was in direct communication with HAYI. A source close to the Iraqi paramilitary group Kataib Hezbollah told CNN that some members of HAYI are Iraqi and that the two groups are connected.
Kataib Hezbollah, like other Iran-aligned groups in the region, operates under the direct or indirect command of the IRGC. Analysts who spoke to CNN said HAYI likely functions as a front for the IRGC.
“Part of the appeal to this is they don’t have to rely on ideologically loyal and core networks that would directly track back to them,” said Phillip Smyth, an expert who focuses on Shia militias. “It provides a facade for what’s actually going on in Europe, so that Iran can both claim responsibility, but then also simultaneously deny it.
” This type of hybrid warfare – hiring “expendable” individuals for criminal and surveillance activities – was pioneered by Iran’s ally, Russia, Smyth added. The Iranian embassy in London denied having any link with or involvement in the London attacks, saying in a statement: “Such baseless accusations against Islamic Republic of Iran, lack credible evidence and appear to serve narrow political agendas and to mislead public opinion and distract from the real root causes of terrorism and violent extremism.
” Fears of escalation Even before this recent wave of attacks, Britain’s domestic intelligence agency, MI5, had warned of a growing threat from Iran. It said it had disrupted more than 20 potentially lethal Iran-backed plots in the UK in the year to October 2025.
“There’s no question that we are seeing an increase in activity for those who are supportive or are actors of the IRGC,” Alicia Kearns, the opposition Conservative Party’s Shadow National Security and Safeguarding Minister, told CNN. “They’ll be recruiting anyone they can,” she said. “Whether it’s someone who’s bored or looking for a job… or whether it’s a full-time criminal.
” It’s not the first time Iran has been accused of using existing criminal networks in Europe to carry out violence or espionage. In Sweden, gangs known as Foxtrot and Rumba are believed to have plotted attacks against the Israeli embassy at Iran’s direction. While most of the attacks claimed so far by HAYI have been executed amateurishly and have not resulted in any injuries or major damage, analysts fear they may escalate.
After two Jewish men were stabbed in the street in the northwest London neighbourhood of Golders Green on April 29, HAYI hailed what it called the actions of “our lone wolves” – but experts doubt whether the group actually directed it. Smyth says HAYI is currently operating in what seems like a “first wave,” and points to similar actions by Iranian proxies in the Middle East which have tended to move towards increasing violence.
At the Kenton synagogue, all Rabbi Black says he can do is install extra security measures and carry on, as so many Jewish communities across the UK are doing. The synagogue has already installed a panic alarm, CCTV and reinforced doors. Service times and details of events listed online are now password protected. Black was singled out in the video posted by HAYI, which called him a “key instrument” of Zionism.
The attacks in London and elsewhere were “plain antisemitism,” he said. “It has to stop. ”
UK Synagogue Attack Medical Room Fire Iran's Role Online Radical Groups Zionist Interests Harakat Ashab Al-Yamin Al-Islamia Harakat Ashab Al-Yamin Al-Islamia Iran-Backed Shia Paramilitary Group
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Armed man attacks Jewish man wearing a Kippah in London, and two men stabbed near a synagogue2 charged in filmed harassment of Jews. 9th arrest made in attacks on ambulances and Jewish sites. New police unit established to protect Jewish communities. Men attacked and stabbed near synagogue in London. Men attacked and stabbed near synagogue in London. Men attacked and stabbed near synagogue in London. Men attacked and stabbed near synagogue in London. Men attacked and stabbed near synagogue in London.
Read more »
Iran claims its new Supreme Leader fully healed from US-Israeli attackIran has said that its new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, has fully healed after sustaining injuries during a joint US-Israeli attack on the first day of the war earlier this year. The official statement came after Iranian state media reported that the supreme leader is in 'full health' since the injuries suffered during the attack.
Read more »
Iran claims its new Supreme Leader fully healed from injuries sustained in joint attackIran's official claim that its new Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has fully healed after sustaining injuries during a joint US-Israeli attack on the first day of the war earlier this year. The claim was dismissed by reports that he had undergone facial surgery.
Read more »
Iran claims its new Supreme Leader fully healed from US-Israeli attackIran has said that its new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, has fully healed after sustaining injuries during a joint US-Israeli attack on the first day of the war earlier this year. The official statement came after Iranian state media reported that the supreme leader is in 'full health' since the injuries suffered during the attack.
Read more »