LONDON (AP) — British police said Monday they arrested two teenagers in connection with an arson attack on a synagogue in northwest London over the weekend, as Jewish leaders express concern about a wave of incidents targeting their community.
Deputy Commissioner Matt Jukes of London’s Metropolitan Police Service said officers arrested two young men, aged 19 and 17, overnight in relation to the attack on the Kenton United Synagogue in the borough of Harrow. The department has made a total of 15 arrests related to six attacks on Jewish targets and a Persian-language media organization critical of Iran’s government that occurred over the past few weeks, he said in an interview with the BBC.
One “serious line of inquiry” is that Iran is hiring local criminals to carry out these attacks amid tensions in the Middle East, including the U.S.-Israeli war against the Islamic Republic, Jukes said.
“We’ve seen a pattern with other actors of thugs for hire, people taking cash that looks like quick and easy money,” Jukes said. “This is part of the modern hybrid war fought by proxies.”
In the most recent incident, a bottle containing a flammable liquid was thrown through the window of the Harrow synagogue on Saturday night, causing smoke damage, police said.
Counterterrorism police are investigating the series of incidents, which began on March 23 when an arson attack destroyed four ambulances owned by a Jewish charity that serves people of all faiths in north Lond …