An Iranian-linked terrorist group claimed responsibility for an arson attack in Belgium on Monday night. A car in the Jewish community of Antwerp, Belgium, was set on fire on Monday night. The incident occurred shortly after midnight, according to reports. No people were injured, and local law enforcement authorities claimed they apprehended two suspects, both minors.
Belgian authorities have not said an official motive for the incident. However, the Iranian-linked terrorist group, Harakat Ashab al Yamin al Islamia, claimed responsibility for the attack in a public messaging board on Telegram. It marks the second day in a row that the group, whose name roughly translates to “The Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right[eous]”, claimed responsibility for an arson attack in a Jewish section of a European city.
On Monday, the group claimed credit for torching four ambulances at a Jewish community rescue service outside the Machzike Hadath synagogue in London. Officials in the city have not verified these claims or officially linked the group to the arson as of yet, according to reports.
Six antisemitic suspected terrorist attacks have now been attributed to Harakat Ashab al Yamin al Islamia. Previous attacks include the detonation of an improvised explosive device outside a synagogue in Liege, Belgium, and another explosion that occurred outside a Jewish school in Amsterdam, Netherlands, earlier in March.
The organization has no recorded history of existing before March 9, according to reports. It is suspected that all of the recent attacks against Jewish targets in Europe are a response to the joint military strikes by the U.S. and Israel in Iran.
“Possible links with Iran became clearer when the Liege attack was claimed by a previously non-existent group calling itself Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia,” said a report by The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism. “HAYI has claimed attacks against an unspecified site in Greece on 11 March, as well as in France and another in the Netherlands, both on 23 March, which all likely constitute disinformation. Although these attacks have so far resulted in no casualties and only minor damage, they nonetheless display a clear terrorist intent, as evidenced by the deliberate targeting of Jewish sites and subsequent claims accompanied by further threats.”
The ICCT has noticed a link between the antisemitic attacks in Europe and the timing of posts about the attacks on Telegram.
“In the case of the three latest attacks in the Netherlands, the timing of online reporting is particularly noteworthy. Mentions of the incidents, despite occurring in the middle of the night, were published within minutes by the same four channels, followed shortly thereafter by the corresponding video claims,” noted Julian Lanches, author of the ICCT report.
“The close proximity of these channels to Iranian-aligned networks, combined with the near-immediate reporting and access to attack footage, suggests that they were informed of the incidents almost in real time, either directly by the perpetrators or via intermediaries,” he noted.
