British counterterrorism police are investigating what they described as “linked arson attacks” in northwest London against Jewish sites and properties with ties to Israel, the Metropolitan Police said on Sunday.
An Islamic group that the police said may have links to Iran has claimed responsibility for several attacks in recent months, the police said, as well as others across Europe.
“We are seeing a concerted campaign against Londoners, and specifically, against British Jews,” Matt Jukes, the deputy commissioner for the Metropolitan Police, said in a statement.
Vicki Evans, Britain’s senior national coordinator of counterterrorism policing, said in the same statement that the police were looking into “the threat of Iranian state aggression in the U.K.,” noting the evolving conflict across the Middle East, which intensified in late February when the United States and Israel attacked Iran.
She identified the group as Ashab al-Yamin, which she said translates to Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right.
The police statement was prompted by an arson attempt at a synagogue overnight from Saturday to Sunday.
It was the latest attack against Jews and Jewish sites in Britain in recent weeks, most of which have caused minor property damage but have sent shock waves through the country’s Jewish community. The attacks come amid a series of such crimes across Europe and the United States.
Police noticed damage to a window in the synagogue, the Kenton United Synagogue in Harrow, around midnight.
“They saw smoke inside a room and evidence that a bottle with some sort of accelerant had been thrown through the window,” the Met said in a response to emailed questions, adding that firefighters had searched the building but found no further fire risk.
The synagogue attack left “minor smoke damage” in a room, a Jewish protection group, the Community Security Trust, said in a statement.
Britain’s chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, said on Sunday that the attempted arson was the third assault against a Jewish site in London in less than a week.
“A sustained campaign of violence and intimidation against the Jewish community of the U.K. is gathering momentum,” Rabbi Mirvis said on social media.
“This sustained attack on our community’s ability to worship and live in safety is an attack on the values that bind us all together,” he added, saying that the danger was real and needed serious attention.
The attack came just hours after the Met police said that they were stepping up activities in northwest London, in part to provide “reassurance to Jewish places of worship and businesses.”
On Friday night, the police responded to a separate arson attempt against a business in the Hendon area of London, which the police said they were investigating “as an antisemitic hate crime.” Rabbi Mirvis said that the attackers had targeted a building once used by Jewish Futures, an educational charity.
Separately, the Met police said on Friday they were investigating a claim that drones had targeted the Israeli Embassy in London, but stressed that the embassy had not been attacked.
On Wednesday, the Met said, there had been an attempted arson attack on Finchley Reform Synagogue, which local authorities called a “terrible hate crime.”
Late last month, four ambulances belonging to a Jewish volunteer emergency service were set on fire. Four people have been charged in that attack, which the Met police said they were investigating as an antisemitic hate crime.
The Met police have pointed to some foreign involvement in the recent episodes, as investigators try to determine whether Iran or its proxies are behind the attacks in Britain and across Europe.
On Sunday, Ms. Evans, the counterterrorism official, said that the police were investigating whether Iran was using criminal proxies in London by “recruiting violence as a service.”
She said the perpetrators were most likely low-level opportunists. “Individuals carrying out these crimes often have no allegiance to the cause and are taking quick cash for their crimes,” she said.
She issued a warning: The risk is not worth the reward.
“Those tasking you will not be there when you are arrested and face court,” she said. “You will be used once and thrown away without a second thought.”
Amelia Nierenberg is a Times reporter covering international news from London.
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