A group that has claimed responsibility for a series of arson attacks in London and across Europe has been outed as an Iranian proxy by the US.
Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya (HAYI) has claimed nearly 20 attacks targeting Jewish people and business and American companies, including last month’s stabbing in Golders Green, London.
HAYI emerged on Telegram news channels connected to Iran-linked militant groups in early March. They made unsubstantiated claims of responsibility for an arson attack on four Jewish ambulances in Golders Green, and another fire set outside a building connected to the Jewish Futures charity in north London.
Now the US Department of Justice (DoJ) has claimed that HAYI is a front of Kata’ib Hezbollah, an Iraqi Shia paramilitary group that is a proxy for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The details emerged in a complaint, filed in the Federal District Court in Manhattan, against an alleged commander of the militia, Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi.
He is accused of planning at least 20 attacks against US and Israeli interests in Europe and Canada since late February.
The complaint says HAYI emerged “almost immediately after the Iranian military conflict began”. It adds that, “in an effort to portray itself as independent” from the IRGC or Hezbollah, “HAYI created its own logo and issued its own founding statement”.
“Both the logo and founding statement, however, underscore that HAYI is merely a component of Kata’ib Hizballah”, the filing says.
It adds: “Essentially overnight, HAYI was able to activate terrorist cells across Europe to carry out nearly 20 attacks in the weeks immediately following the start of the Iranian military conflict. In doing so, HAYI relied on using an already well-established media and ideological infrastructure”.
It is alleged that Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi is a high-level member of the Iraqi militia, who has close ties to the IRGC and Hezbollah. He allegedly worked closely with Qasem Soleimani, Iran’s most powerful military commander who was assassinated in 2020.
Al-Saadi was involved in the planning, execution, and promotion of attacks across Europe, including arson attacks on synagogues in Belgium and the Netherlands, the complaint claims.
The filings list the arson attacks on four Hatzalah ambulances, a synagogue, and a media organisation in London as claimed by HAYI, among others. Al-Saadi was apparently heard on a telephone call saying he was “running multiple teams”, which the DoJ said could be referring to the European attacks.
