Commentary
Iran has allegedly started a new terrorist group called the Islamic Movement of the Righteous Companions (also known as the Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia (HAYI), or the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right). The Iranian regime allegedly recruits disaffected individuals online, encourages them to engage in terrorism against Jewish and U.S. targets, and then claims their acts and perhaps others under the HAYI brand.
The group’s emblem, tactics, and propaganda appear to be connected to the Iranian regime. The emblem features a raised hand gripping a rifle before a globe. The emblem has parallels to those of other Iran-linked terrorist groups, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Iran, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Kataib Hezbollah (KH) in Iraq. Chillingly, the HAYI emblem has a sniper rifle rather than the AK-47s of the other groups.
The group has thus far mostly attacked Jewish synagogues in Europe, but it has attacked the Bank of New York Mellon offices in the Netherlands. HAYI is anti-Semitic and demands that Europe not assist the United States and Israel. After U.S. and Israeli attacks led to the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader, the IRGC publicly stated that its adversaries “will no longer be safe anywhere in the world, not even in their own homes.”
Iran has prepositioned weapons and ammunition in Europe, has Hamas and Hezbollah members on the ground, and recruits organized crime groups. Iran appears to have followed a Russian playbook in recruiting European residents online for HAYI “sleeper” cells that await orders to attack.
On March 7, a statement on the encrypted social media company Telegram ordered the Iranian sleeper cells to activate. The group’s first attack occurred two days later. It used an improvised explosive device to damage the front of the Synagogue of Liège in Belgium. The door and some nearby cars erupted into flames. It was the city’s first such attack since the Holocaust.
Two days later, the group supposedly set off an explosion in Athens, Greece, and distributed footage. The group claimed that the explosion targeted a Jewish site.
On March 13, arsonists set a synagogue in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, on fire. The synagogue is the only Orthodox Jewish school in the country. Dutch police arrested five teenagers for the attack, and are investigating links they may have to Iran.
The day after, a Jewish school in Amsterdam was attacked, followed by an attack on that city’s offices of Bank of New York Mellon over the next two days. HAYI was linked to the bank attack and justified it to CBS. Iran had warned on March 11 that it would target U.S. and Israeli financial institutions, and three days later, it apparently did so.
On March 22, the group posted to social media, “In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. This is the Final Warning To all the peoples of the world, especially in the European Union. Immediately distance yourselves from all American and Zionist interests, facilities, and what is affiliated with them.”
The next day, HAYI posted a video of another attack—four burning Jewish ambulances in front of a London synagogue—with the HAYI emblem attached. A HAYI spokesman told CBS News, “We'll keep threatening U.S. and Israeli interests worldwide until we’ve avenged every child in Gaza, Iran, Lebanon, and the resistance nations.” He continued, “We urge people to stay away from Zionist and American interests and individuals to keep themselves safe.”
The HAYI attacks are part of almost a dozen attacks against Jewish sites since the Iran war started on Feb. 28. HAYI also claims credit for supposed attacks in France and one in the Netherlands, neither of which caused much, if any, damage, and could be a form of disinformation.
HAYI’s violence and propaganda in Europe are backfiring. It will lead more Europeans to recognize the terrorist nature of the regime in Iran, and more European countries to increase their support for their U.S. and Israeli allies.
The violence adds to a feeling of insecurity in Europe caused by longstanding Iranian attacks on Iranian dissidents, journalists, and Jewish people. The lack of an effective response by European authorities is leading some European Jewish youth to migrate to the United States and Israel. Together, the two countries enjoy 90 percent of the world’s Jewish population. That number will likely grow with time, given the ongoing conflict with Iran.
Europe and the world should increase their counterterrorism efforts so everybody, including Jewish people and Iranian pro-democracy dissidents, feels safe. Meanwhile, the United States and Israel cannot afford to lose the war against the Iranian regime. It is a terrorist organization, as has been made clear by its terrorist tactics, from hostage-taking to the setting of explosive devices against U.S. and Jewish targets.
Rooting out terrorism is not easy or costless, but in free societies, it must be done.
