A new terrorist group with suspected links to the Iranian regime emerged in Europe last week. Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiyya (The Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right) has claimed responsibility for four attacks on Jewish targets across the continent.
A synagogue in Liège, Belgium, was the first target of an explosive attack on Monday. An arson attack on a Rotterdam synagogue followed overnight on Friday and an explosive device was set off at a Jewish school in Amsterdam the next evening.
Several sources have linked an additional attack at a Jewish site in Greece on Wednesday with the group, though no specifics were given about the target or method of attack.
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Joe Truzman, senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and editor of the FDD’s Long War Journal, told Fox News Digital that when he saw the statement from the organization following their Monday attack, he “thought it was a little bit amateurish.” Truzman said that after videos from the group became to emerge, he “realized that there’s probably something more here to this organization.”
He said that the war in Iran has likely “compelled the group, for whoever is behind this, to start launching these attacks.” Truzman said he “suspect[s] this organization is being directed” and that there is “an entity behind it.”
Truzman says he suspects the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) itself, which he says “has been active in Europe” and has “attempted to eliminate or assassinate dissidents.” Though he does not discount them being entity of an Iraqi militia group.
In addition to anticipating further attacks from Ashab al-Yamin, Truzman said that he is concerned that “the dissemination of [terror] videos online may compel other people to commit antisemitic attacks” in Europe. According to Truzman, Ashab al-Yamin’s videos are “starting to gain traction. They’re starting to get the views, and people are seeing it. And maybe the ones that are radicalized already or are going to be radicalized, may be influenced by these videos, and may commit an antisemitic attack or an attack on a Jewish site.”
He said that the attacks “have been mostly unsophisticated, but things may change, and they may start targeting people, too, during the day, when it’s busy.” So far all attacks have come at night.
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Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted on X that the group was tied to the regime in Tehran. “A jihadi group tied to an Iranian proxy” was responsible for the string of attacks. They noted that “the IRGC continues to sponsor and export terror across the globe.”
Onlookers are increasingly tying the attacks back to the war in Iran. The World Jewish Congress raised alarm bells about Ashab al-Yamin on X, stating that “security analysts believe the group may be part of Iran’s expanding network of proxy actors operating far beyond the Middle East.” The Congress called on governments to “treat this threat with the seriousness it deserves, dismantle the networks behind these attacks, and ensure Jewish communities can live and worship in safety.”
Amichai Chikli, Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Minister, called the attacks “part of a troubling pattern.” He explained that “terror networks linked to the Iranian axis are trying to expand their arena of activity into European cities and Jewish communities.”
The State Department did not respond to questions about whether it had previously been tracking Ashab al-Yamin, or if it planned to issue a warning to Americans traveling abroad to avoid Jewish institutions, but an alert from the U.S. embassy in the Netherlands on Monday warned, “Following recent targeted explosive incidents in the Netherlands and in other major European cities, the U.S. Mission to the Netherlands reminds U.S. citizens to maintain good personal security practices and exercise heightened situational awareness, consistent with the Department of State’s recent Worldwide Caution alert.”
The alert added, “As noted in the Travel Advisory for the Netherlands, terrorist groups continue plotting possible attacks in the Netherlands. Terrorists may attack with little or no warning, targeting tourist locations, transportation hubs, markets/shopping malls, local government facilities, hotels, clubs, restaurants, places of worship, parks, major sporting and cultural events, educational institutions, airports, and other public areas.”
Israel’s National Security Council recently warned its citizens traveling abroad to conceal items that might identify them as Israeli or Jewish and to “avoid visiting sites identified as Jewish or Israeli” following the first of three shootings at Toronto synagogues in early March.
