Car set on fire in Antwerp’s Jewish neighborhood: suspects arrested

In the night of Monday to Tuesday, a parked car was set on fire in Antwerp’s Jewish neighborhood. The arson attack was claimed by the same group that claimed other similar terrorist arson attacks in Liège, Rotterdam, Amsterdam and London.

The car was parked at the corner of Appelmansstraat and Vestingstraat, near the Central Station, in a neighborhood where many Jews live. 

With the arson attack on four Jewish ambulances in London and the attack in Antwerp’s Jewish neighborhood, six attacks have now been attributed to a pro-Iran group called “Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya” in just two weeks.

“The establishment of new (terrorist) groups is characteristic of Iranian hybrid warfare,” states a report by the ICCT, the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism in The Hague, quoted by Belgian daily De Morgen.

Early on  Monday morning, four ambulances caught fire in London near a synagogue in the Golden Greens neighborhhod of northwest London. The vehicles belonged to Hatzola, an organization of volunteer paramedics serving the Jewish community, similar to the one in Antwerp.

In Antwerp, video footage appears to show several perpetrators setting a parked car on fire  in the Kiviet neighborhood near Central Station. Shortly after 2 a.m. The footage appeared on a Telegram channel spreading Iranian propaganda.

The Shmira security service said the fire was discovered and extinguished by a volunteer patrol shortly before midnight. The public prosecutor’s office confirms the facts and stated that two juvenile suspects have been arrested. For now, it is keeping all possibilities open regarding the potential motive for the arson.

Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya (HAYI) is a brand-new group which ytranslates as ‘‘Islamic Movement for Righteous Companions.’’

HAYI has previously claimed responsibility for arson attacks at the synagogue in Liège and at various Jewish sites in the Netherlands.

Since Monday, military was deployed near Jewish sites in Antwerp and Brussels following a request from Jewish organizations.

Earlier this month, the  U.S. has intercepted encrypted communications believed to have originated in Iran that may serve as “an operational trigger” for “sleeper assets” outside the country, according to a federal government alert sent to law enforcement agencies.

The alert cites “preliminary signals analysis” of a transmission “likely of Iranian origin” that was relayed across multiple countries shortly after the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a U.S.-Israeli attack on Feb. 28.

The term sleeper assets or cells is used to refer to operatives who reside in a country, living a normal life and working jobs, without attracting attention. These covert groups stay inactive until ordered to act on a mission.