British police probe Iranian proxy links to London synagogue arson attacks

British counterterrorism police are investigating whether a string of arson attacks on Jewish and Jewish-linked sites in London were carried out by Iranian proxies, after the latest incident left minor smoke damage at Kenton United Synagogue in Harrow and no injuries.

Officers said they found damage to a synagogue window and smoke inside a room after a bottle containing an accelerant was thrown through the glass on Saturday night, April 18. The attack came one day after a similar incident elsewhere in northwest London and was the third such assault in a week, deepening concern around a pattern that now spans synagogues, Jewish community vehicles and a Persian-language media office.

The wider investigation includes a building formerly used by a Jewish charity in Hendon, a firebombing of four Jewish community ambulances in Golders Green, and the attempted arson attack on the London offices of Volant Media, which operates the Israeli-funded Persian-language broadcaster Iran International. Three British nationals, including a 16-year-old, have been charged over the April 15 office attack with arson with intent to endanger life.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Vicki Evans said most of the recent incidents have been claimed online by Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia, also known as the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right. Police are now considering whether the group is linked to Iran and whether the attacks fit the Iranian regime’s use of criminal proxies abroad. Evans said the group has also claimed similar attacks in Belgium and the Netherlands in recent months.

The Community Security Trust said the Kenton attack caused only minor smoke damage to an internal room, with no injuries or significant structural damage. The charity said the UK recorded 3,700 antisemitic incidents in 2025, the second-highest total ever reported to it, and 1,521 in the first half of 2025 alone, also its second-highest first-half figure.

Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said the attacks showed a sustained campaign of violence and intimidation against British Jews was gathering momentum. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was appalled and promised those responsible would be found and brought to justice. Police said they had stepped up patrols in areas with large Jewish populations, as the line between domestic hate crime and foreign-state threat activity grows harder to separate.