Judul : Counter-terror police probe if Iran paid 'amateur proxies' to carry out antisemitic arson attack
link : Counter-terror police probe if Iran paid 'amateur proxies' to carry out antisemitic arson attack
Counter-terror police probe if Iran paid 'amateur proxies' to carry out antisemitic arson attack
Iran is paying petty criminals to carry out attacks on British soil, the head of parliament's intelligence and security committee has warned.
Lord Beamish suggested Tehran is copying the Russian playbook after a firebomb attack on Jewish community ambulances in north London.
Detectives are still searching for three arsonists who torched four ambulances in Golders Green on Monday morning.
An Islamist militant group linked to Iran has claimed responsibility for the attack, along with a string of other firebombings across Europe.
But security experts say there is no evidence to verify the claim by Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia and the attack may have been carried out by local criminals hired as proxies.
Lord Beamish told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4: 'The Iranian regime, whether it be the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] or Iranian security services, do attack dissidents, people who criticise the regime, and target the Jewish community and they do that increasingly not directly, but through proxies.
'What you're dealing with here is not necessarily just organised crime groups but also people who are just paid.
'So for example, if you look, it's a type of approach which the Russians are using.
'If you looked for example at the attack last year on the warehouse in east London, many of those individuals who are not directly linked to any organised crime groups are just paid money.'
The peer compared the incident to an arson attack on a Ukrainian-owned business in east London in 2024 by a group recruited by the Wagner Group, a private military organisation that acts as a proxy for the Russian state.
On Tuesday the head of UK Counter Terrorism Policing said it was still unclear whether Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia had orchestrated the ambulance attack.
Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor said: 'Clearly it's very worrying both for the community but also for us. We need to understand more about that group. You'll be aware that they have claimed a number of incidents across Europe.
'That is one line of inquiry that we're undertaking. We work incredibly closely with our security service partners and collectively we are exploring who that group are, what their motivations are, and what level of involvement they had, if at all, in the Golders Green incident.'
He revealed the number of cases involving National Security Act offences, including spying and sabotage for foreign powers, has risen by 50 per cent in the six months to December last year.
He said: 'We've seen a very significant increase in our work involved with foreign state activity, particularly around that top three of Iran, Russia and China.'
'In the six months up to December last year, we had a 50 per cent increase in National Security Act investigations, and that's on the back of a five-fold increase over the last four or five years.'
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch urged the Government to 'move beyond words to action' in tackling antisemitism in Britain.
She said: 'I think the Government needs to move beyond words to action. We are seeing an increase in attacks on the Jewish people, the Jewish community, Jewish businesses, and it is not enough just to offer to step up security.
'That's barely the first step. What I want to see is sanctions against people who are inciting violence against Jewish people, inciting hatred against Jewish people.'
Ms Badenoch's comments came as Assistant Commissioner Taylor said more than 200 extra officers will be deployed to protect Jewish communities in the wake of the arson attack.
He said the Met will also use specialist teams including firearms, the mounted branch and drones in the run up to the Jewish festival of Passover.
Speaking outside New Scotland Yard on Tuesday, he said: 'It was an absolutely horrendous attack on the Jewish community.
'The Jewish community have put up with a lot of these types of incidents over the last few years, and whilst they're very strong and resilient, they are clearly very frightened, and we absolutely understand that, and that's why our counter terrorism officers are now conducting that investigation.
'It's also important to say that we are looking very closely at how we work with the Jewish community, the protective security measures that we're putting in place across the country, but specifically in London, we've added an extra 264 officers to patrolling those Jewish communities.
'They will see visible firearms officers patrolling the streets, as well as using some of our specialist assets, from drones and our mounted branch to keep those communities safe, and in particular, working with Jewish schools, Jewish synagogues, to ensure the protective security measures we've got in place are the best they can be.'
The latest official figures on hate crime recorded by police in England and Wales showed Jewish people had the highest rate of religious hate crimes targeted at them of any faith group.
Two worshippers were killed in a deadly attack on a synagogue in Manchester in October 2025 and, in a separate investigation earlier this month, two men were charged with allegedly spying on Jewish people and locations for Iran.
Assistant Commissioner Taylor said: 'We've certainly seen antisemitism increasing significantly.
'The Community Security Trust will tell you [there have been] huge rises in reports to them. We're seeing it through our police work, from hate crime through to that being motivation for terrorist planning and terrorist attacks.
'It is really worrying for that community.
'An attack on the Jewish community is an attack on the British community, and it's absolutely appalling that anybody in Britain should feel unsafe and vulnerable to this type of crime.'
Elsewhere, four London Ambulance Service (LAS) vehicles arrived in Golders Green on Tuesday afternoon to replace the Jewish community ambulances destroyed in the arson attack.
It followed Health Secretary Wes Streeting's announcement on Monday that LAS would loan the vehicles to Hatzola after four of the charity's ambulances were set on fire in the early hours of the morning.
The Government will also cover the cost of the vehicles that were destroyed, Mr Streeting announced.
After the LAS vehicles parked, Hatzola chairman Shloimie Richman read out a statement saying Monday was the 'darkest day' in the charity's existence.
He said: 'The irony is that you have vehicles that are used for life-saving work and transfer to hospital, and those are being targeted in an arson attack.
'It just kind of makes you feel what kind of world are we living in currently?
'I think the bottom line is that weren't targeted because they are ambulances, they are targeted because they identify with the Jewish community in a high profile way.
'And that is, for us, the worrier.'
Mr Richman said that more than £1 million has been raised to support the organisation following the incident.
He said that going forward, they will look at using the funds to create a 'secure home' for the ambulances.
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