Police investigate whether London arson attacks were planned for weeks

The series of attacks against synagogues and other Jewish targets, as well as one premises linked to Iranian dissidents, are believed to be carried out by criminals paid on behalf of Iran, police said.

Last week the attacks in London intensified with investigators believing it was most likely that the criminals were recruited online and also given directions online.

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

This attacks appears to have been livestreamed to a “handler” with the footage then edited to appear in a propaganda video issued on Telegram by the group called Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia (Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right).

The suspected involvement of a foreign state has led to counter-terrorism policing taking charge of the investigation, hunting for attackers as well as those directing them.

Two teenagers, 17 and 19, were arrested in connection with the Harrow attack on suspicion of arson, with one suspect still being hunted.

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

One smashed a window before hurling a petrol bomb through it.

Police said minor damage was caused and nobody was injured, but the culminative effect of the series of attacks in a short space of time is further worrying British Jewish communities who have suffered a large rise in antisemitism since October 2023, when Israel was invaded, attacked and 1,200 of its citizens killed, with the country responding by attacking Gaza with tens of thousands killed.

So far 15 people have been arrested over the six attacks in London since 23 March, when the first firebombing targeted four ambulances belonging to a Jewish charity in north London, police said.

Last week there was an attack on the synagogue in Harrow (a building once used by a Jewish educational charity), an attempt to use drones against the Israeli embassy, an arson attack against an Iranian dissident media company, as well as a synagogue in Finchley.

The strongly suspected role of Iran is under active investigation and Matt Jukes, deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan police, told LBC: “We’re going to look incredibly closely at whether those claims stand up.

“They’re intended to intimidate so we have to distinguish what’s happening online and being broadcast and claimed, from those things we can prove.

“But I think this is an extraordinary period. We’ve sadly seen hate crime in our communities before, we’ve seen radicalisation towards terrorism.

“But now what we’ve got is the prospect of a foreign state actually using that as a mechanism to sow discord, discontent and to create anxiety in our communities.

“That is really troubling.”

Keir Starmer, the prime minister, said he was “appalled by recent attempted antisemitic arson attacks in north London”.

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

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

It first claimed a series of attacks against Jewish targets in Holland, which started on 13 March, after the US attack on Iran had started, followed by an attack in Belgium, and a thwarted one in France.

Jukes described the criminal proxies being paid to carry out the violence as “fools”. Russia was the first state to hire criminals to carry out an attack in the UK, using a chatbot to lure in Dylan Earl, 21, who was convicted of arson and jailed for 17 years. The sentence was higher than it would have been because Earl was acting on behalf of a foreign state.