Inventing the Enemy: Iranian Terrorists

How a fake Iranian terror group was invented as a pretext for proscribing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Europe – the story of Ashab al-Yamin.

David Miller, Mint Press || A series of arson attacks and alleged incidents targeting alleged Jewish-linked sites across Europe have been attributed to a little-known group called Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia (HAYI), or Ashab al-Yamin. The group has been widely described in media and security circles as an Iran-backed network, allegedly linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Since March 9, HAYI has been credited with what some analysts describe as “hybrid warfare” style operations spanning multiple countries from Greece and Belgium to France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Among the most high-profile incidents was the burning of four ambulances in Golders Green, North London, on March 22.

The emergence of this group coincides with the escalation of the US-Israeli war against Iran. In parallel, media outlets and pro-war commentators have warned that Tehran could expand the conflict by carrying out attacks across Europe.

But a closer examination raises serious questions about its actual existence and the pro-Israel groups pushing this narrative. 

Several of the incidents attributed to HAYI do not appear to have directly targeted Jewish communities. Others remain murky, with limited verified information about the perpetrators. And beyond scattered claims and online statements, there is little concrete evidence that this group as described actually exists.

In the fog of war, narratives can move faster than facts. 

At the same time, governments across Europe and the UK are moving to formally designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization — a policy long pushed by pro-war, pro-Israel lobbying networks. Many of the same actors amplifying the HAYI narrative are also leading that campaign within Western media to manufacture consent for war and accelerate this political objective of proscription. While raising the possibility that unverified claims of an Iran-linked threat are being leveraged to shape public fear and justify sweeping new security measures tied to the widening war.

This investigation examines each reported attack, the sources promoting the HAYI narrative, and how claims of a coordinated campaign may be shaping public perception — fueling fears of rising antisemitism, calls for expanded security measures and proscribing the IRGC as a terrorist organisation amid an illegal war. 

But what is Ashab al-Yamin? Where did it come from and does it exist at all?

This investigation reveals that there is no such group. It appears to be a fictional cut out. Half of its reported activities simply did not occur. The other half were so amateurish, and inconsequential – with not a single injury –   One theory is that they may have been messily undertaken by hired gig criminals and/or incompetent Sayanim, the name given to Mossad’s network of little helpers in countries all over the world. This investigative analysis shows that even the Zionist regime and its assets in establishment think tanks acknowledge that so-called “gig criminals” have been involved in this series of events, in a striking parallel with similar events in Australia (fourteen of them between October 2024 and January 2025) which were similarly low impact with no casualties, declared to be “fake” by Australian police in March 2025.

What happened?

There have been ten incidents attributed to Ashab al-Yamin between March 9 – March 23rd. Of these ten incidents, as we will show, five did not happen.  Three of these were entirely fictional (Greece, 11/12 March; France, 23 March; Haarlem, Netherlands, 23 March).  One was not associated with the alleged terror group nor was it an attack on “the Jews”.(Antwerp, Belgium, 23 March). The fifth was only ever alleged to have been “planned” but nothing actually happened (Chabad Hebrew School, Heemstede, Netherlands, 23 March)

The other five events, or “attacks” if you will, did occur.  Four involved a small “explosion”, accompanied in one, or perhaps more, cases by a fire (Liège, Belgium, 9 March, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 13 March, Bank branch, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 15 March) and the final one involved the burning of four ambulances (Golders Green, London, 22 March). 

Disinformation – Fake attacks

Even the establishment think tank the International Centre for Counter Terrorism in the Hague was sceptical of several of the attacks. It reported on 23 March that “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.”  The ICCT analysis “of the ‘Greek attack video’ indicates that it depicts an explosion at a residential building in Rotterdam on 3 March.” Even the Zionist regime’s  Ministry of Diaspora Affairs said  the Greek incident “may constitute disinformation”.

Of course, what the ICCT and the Ministry mean is that the disinformation was produced by the alleged terror group, on behalf of Iran. But if it is not, then who produced the disinformation?

The fourth of the fake attacks was an incident involving what was claimed by the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs to be “An arson attack targeting a vehicle in a Jewish neighborhood in Antwerp, Belgium (March 23).”  However, as the Dutch newspaper HLN reported, the owner of the car was Moroccan and not Jewish:

The car’s owner, Fatia M., was also full of praise for the emergency services and the police. “These vandals must be severely punished. I believe they first smashed the window to search the car. There were jewels inside that I received from my late father. They were stolen. After that, the perpetrators set the car on fire. Why? This is a 2005 Ford Fiesta. What a senseless act that is?”

Most mainstream media reports in English stated that the car was in the Jewish quarter.  While some accounts said that the car was “on the edge” of the Jewish district, Nieuwsblad reported the car was located “just outside the Jewish quarter” (“net buiten de Joodse wijk”). Two “minors” were arrested in relation to the alleged crime. 

The last non-attack was reported to be a possible plan to attack a Chabad school in Heemstede. The Dutch police arrested two teenagers, aged 14 and 17 on Monday 23 March “on suspicion of preparing a terrorist attack”.  A Fourteen year old?  The two were allegedly in possession of “fireworks”. The police and the Public Prosecution Service “are taking into account the possibility that a synagogue near Adriaan Pauwlaan, where the two were arrested, was the target of an impending explosion.” Other reports claimed the target might have been a local Chabad Hebrew School. Chabad is, of course, an ultra genocidal Jewish supremacist cult. Even the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs was reticent about claiming this one.  The arrests they said: “may have been linked to Ashab al-Yamin; however, no confirmed connection to the group has been established at this time.”  They did however, falsely claim that the police had “foiled a planned bombing attack”.

Real events

Of the five “real” events four involved a small “explosion” with what was referred to as an “improvised Explosive Device” or IED, resulting in one, or possibly more, cases in a short lived fire. The similarity in the first four suggests one group was possibly responsible for all of them. 

In Liege a synagogue was targeted with a small incendiary device which reportedly “damaged the door and windows on the front façade.”

There was reportedly an alleged explosion at a synagogue in Rotterdam on 13 March, which caused scorching to the door. Four men aged 17-19 were arrested in relation to the Rotterdam incident.  A fifth (age 19) was picked up later and then two more (ages 20 and 23) were arrested on 27 March.

In the 14 March alleged explosion outside a Jewish school, there are hardly any images of the damage done, since it was so minimal.  Here is the best image I have found, captured from video news footage. As you can see in small print at the top, the report says that the alleged explosion reportedly “damaged a drainage pipe and charred an outer wall”.

The alleged explosion at the Atrium reportedly “targeted the Bank of New York Mellon”. In the video released by the alleged terror group  the Bank correctly noted that its office is on the fourth floor of the South Tower of the building. The homemade IED was, however, thrown at the outside door of the building on the ground floor, as can be seen in the image above.The Golders Green arson attack on the four Hatzola ambulances appears to have been carried out by three men, who can be seen in the CCTV footage supplied to news organisations. While suspects in the less serious incidents in the Netherlands are still in custody, the Metropolitan Police promptly bailed two suspects that they picked up in London, and refused to say any more than that they were UK nationals, leading to speculation about the motivations of the attack.

Here is the the English language version of a communique from the alleged new terror group:

The Machzike Hadath Synagogue in London is one of the important centers of Orthodox Judaism, and its deepest connection to Israel is through Rabbi Abraham Isaac HaCohen Kook, the first Chief Rabbi of Israel and one of the most influential thinkers of Religious Zionism, who served at this synagogue before immigrating to the Land of Israel. This historical bond continues to this day, and the synagogue has become one of the main bastions of support for Israel in Britain, so much so that in June 2024, Rishi Sunak, the former British Prime Minister, visited this site amidst the Gaza war to affirm, alongside his expression of solidarity with the Jewish community, his country’s unwavering support for Israel.

This is oddly written. First of all, the attack was on four ambulances belonging to Hatzola Northwest, not on the synagogue beside which the ambulances were parked. Did the crack team dispatched by the IRGC confuse the ambulances with the synagogue? Note also the use of the term “land of Israel” a decidedly zionist turn of phrase. The Machzike Hadath Synagogue is hardly an “important center” of Orthodox Judaism (note the US/Israeli spelling of “centre”).  Rabbi Kook, though an important figure in the history of Religious Zionism, is hardly a top target of Palestinians  (or Iranians), given he has been dead for over ninety years. His association with the Synagogue is something likely known only to very few, including, most obviously, congregants of the Synagogue itself. 

The Synagogue is not one of the “main bastions” of support for “Israel” in Britain.  There are hundreds of Zionist organisations that are more important. While the Synagogue is a Jewish supremacist institution, it is not explicitly Zionist, especially by comparison with hundreds of other synagogues, Jewish schools, youth groups and indeed formal affiliates of the Zionist movement.  Its origins are in the so-called Litvac or ‘Misnagdim’ community – from Lithuania.  

It is a member of the Federation of Synagogues which gathers together both Hasidic and Central-orthodox synagogues.  While several synagogues from the genocidal ultra-Zionist Chabad cult are members, the Z word is nowhere mentioned on the website of the synagogue. This is a contrast to the many others affiliated with the largest and avowedly Zionist United Synagogue movement. At best this claim is an unconvincing statement either written with AI or possibly by someone with close knowledge of the synagogue.

On the “real” attacks

The first thing to say about the “real” events is how low impact they have been.  There were no casualties and barely a smashed window (with the exception of the ambulance arson). The Islamic Republic of Iran is currently defending itself against US-Israeli strikes with the most sophisticated missiles and a stockpile of underground cities as the Islamic Republic destroys US military bases and radar systems worth billions of dollars in the region. At the same time, the European and British public are asked to believe that Iran sent sloppy individuals, some of them children/teenagers, to set small fires at or near Jewish venues (or in some cases venues with no Jewish or Zionist connection) some of which were put out by a fire extinguisher?

It looks like Ashab al-Yamin is not all it is claimed to be and what the media would us to believe.  So, lets look at the sources of data used to convince us that an IRGC cut out was in play.  That alleged evidence were claims that Telegram channels allegedly associated with the Axis of Resistance and then with the alleged group HAYI itself had issued claims of responsibility for the attacks. 

The three sources of data on alleged Telegram posts.

It is widely reported in the mainstream media that these incidents were (mostly) claimed by the new group via Telegram groups aligned to the Axis of Resistance and from its own Telegram channel.  This tale falters a little when one learns that the group’s alleged Telegram channels only became operational after five of the “attacks” had taken place.  It is alleged there were two Telegram Channels  – one created in 2023 but not active until the 16 March or thereabouts, after five of the alleged attacks had taken place. The other was created only on 21 March just before the other five alleged attacks took place. 

Claim videos were posted there, so it is claimed,  only after they had already circulated on pro-Iran/axis-of-resistance Telegram channels. These claims first appeared on Telegram on 11 March for example on Sabereen News which posted the video showing an incendiary device being placed on the front step of the synagogue in Liege on 9 March.

It is also claimed that it had “a few dozen followers” at the time of activation. Referred to generically as “an allegedly official Telegram account of HAYI” or “the Telegram channel that HAYI uses to claim its attacks.” No specific Arabic/English username was published and nor were any links given.

Second HAYI Telegram Channel

A second Telegram account was reportedly created on 21 March 2026, two days before the Golders Green Hatzola ambulance arson on 23 March. It, reportedly, became immediately operational upon creation and was used for the London attack claim, which included a QR code in the video linking directly to this channel. The Telegram accounts are only described generically by the ICCT as “another Telegram account, likewise posing as an official mouthpiece of HAYI” or “a second HAYI-affiliated channel.” No t.me handle or exact name is disclosed, though the Ministry of Diaspora affairs published a screenshot of one of the alleged channels. That channel has now been deleted.

It is claimed that the first organisation to amplify the claims made on this second Telegram channel from 21 March was the SITE Intelligence Group. SITE is a well known Zionist intel cut out run by the daughter of a Zionist spy executed in Iraq in 1969, Rita Katz. It’s involvement – rather late in the day – following the previous interventions of the FDD and the Zionist regime itself.

So, who is it that has made these claims about Telegram channels and messages?  There are only three sources.  

Foundation for Defense of Democracies

The first source was on 12 March, when Joe Truzman wrote a short article posted both on the site of the Long War Journal, which he edits and on the site of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies where he works and which publishes the journal.  He was the first to claim the possibility of an Iran link: “The claimed attacks could signal that Iran or Iran-aligned actors are executing acts of terrorism in Europe”. FDD is a Likudnik cut out, and as we famously admitted by the then Director General of the Ministry of Strategic Affairs, Sima Vaknin-Gil, FDD is used by the regime to gather information:  ‘we have FDD. We have others working on this.’

The FDD’s intervention though, saw limited traction. It was cited by the regimes Ministry of Foreign Affairs on X and some pro-Israel accounts, and niche sites. But there was no major mainstream media pickup. Social media mentions were low-volume. Clearly bigger guns were needed.

The Ministry of Diaspora Affairs

The second source, on 16 March was none other than the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs based in Apartheid Israel.  Almost all of the coverage in English and in other languages took its cue from this intervention.  The Ministry of Diaspora Affairs has absorbed international hasbara operations from the downgraded Ministry of Strategic Affairs, now funding overseas cutouts and churning out propaganda materials to shape narratives abroad. The Ministry of Diaspora Affairs assumed responsibility for Israel’s international propaganda efforts when the Ministry of Strategic Affairs was downgraded. Minister Amichai Chikli’s department rebooted the former Concert project as Voices of Israel post-October 2023, directing it to go “on the offensive” against critics.

The ministry funds overseas cutouts to evade foreign-agent scrutiny while producing propaganda content. It allocated $2 million to STOIC for covert social-media campaigns targeting US lawmakers and spent millions on campus operations and media kits. It also issues calls for proposals that channel shekels into settler outreach and “struggle against delegitimisation” videos. Israel’s hasbara machine now operates under one roof, quietly scaling influence operations worldwide.

The International Centre for Counter Terrorism

The third source claiming a link to Iran was an establishment think tank in the Hague. It published a piece on its website on 23 March the same day as the London attack. It was only after this that big mainstream media like the BBC (24 March) started to mention Iran links, though it appears not to have ever been mentioned on CNN.  

But what is the International Centre for Counter Terrorism?  It is  based in the Hague receives a ‘core subsidy’ from the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It also advertises the following partners all of which are affiliated with the Western imperial complex and have presumably provided funding of some sort: NATO, Global Counterterrorism Forum, RUSI Europe, Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs and USAID.

One of its Junior Research Fellows, Julian Lanchès, authored the ICCT briefing on Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia. Lanchès previously worked at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) a well known asset of Apartheid Israel and is well networked with Zionist and groups It was created Lord Weidenfeld, the publishing magnate, and former adviser to Chaim Weizmann when he was the first president of the entity in 1949. The ISD is overseen by a board and a team of advisors. The board is stuffed with figures from the financial sector. These include some who have other connections such as the former chief of staff of the British Army Charles Guthrie, who has also had advisory roles with neoconservative think tanks and pro-Zionist groups such as the Jewish National Fund. Guthrie also, is an advisor to the haute neocon lobby group United Against a Nuclear Iran.178

A wide range of western government departments has funded the ISD including from Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Canada, Australia as well as the UK Home Office (parent of propaganda group RICU) and Foreign Office, the US State Department and the EU itself. Also of note is the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at Kings College. The Eranda Rothschild Foundation, one of the the family foundations of the UK branch of the Rothschild family, has also supported it, as well as funding neoconservative think tanks such as the Henry Jackson Society and the Jerusalem Foundation, which is engaged in illegal occupation activities in East Jerusalem.

Lanchès also studied at the King’s College in War Studies which is run by the International Centre for Study of Radicalisation (ICSR). The ICSR was created as a result of attempts by pro-Israel figures to combat Boycott Divestment and Sanctions in relation to Israel/Palestine and is financially supported by foundations that also fund pro-Israel, indeed pro-settler activities, including from foundations created by the following Zionist families: Atkin, Wolfson, Sacher, Clore, Ronson, Pears and Sieff.

When the terrorism experts at the ICCT do talk about Israel or Zionism, it is clear that it is Israel centric talking points that they spout.  The image above shows Bibi van Ginkel appearing on Dutch TV to spout lies about the Jewish supremacist thugs who spread terror throughout Amsterdam when they arrived for a Maccabi Tel Aviv game in November 2024.  The ICCT reported that she: “spoke on the possible qualification of the attack as terrorism or vigilant terrorism.” Incredibly she was not referring to the Maccabi Tel Aviv fans but to the brave Muslims who fought back.  Back in December 2023 she perjured herself by saying on NPO, the Dutch public broadcasting organisation, that “Hamas itself now also has a network here, that had planned attacks against Jewish institutions. And that really is a new development.” The ICCT is, therefore, one step down the food chain from its masters in the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs.

History of False Flags

Of course this would not be the first time that the Zionists have indulged in False Flag operations.  Such operations go way back, as anyone familiar with the Lavon Affair (Code named Operation Susannah)  knows. Israeli Defense Minister Pinchas Lavon organised a plan to use Egyptian Jews and undercover Zionist agents to bomb American, British, and Egyptian buildings in Cairo. Lavon’s goal was to blame the bombings on Arabs, creating the impression of an anti-Western atmosphere and helping convince the British and Americans of the need to have the British stay in the Suez Canal zone.  Instead there was a public trial and conviction of eight Egyptian Jews who carried out the covert operation, two of whom were subsequently executed; this led to a chaim of events culminating in the Suez invasion and then, as Leonard Weiss writes:  “France expanded and accelerated its ongoing nuclear cooperation with Israel, which eventually enabled the Jewish state to build nuclear weapons.” As this cautionary tale indicates false flags can be effective motors of human history.

It’s also known that the Zionists created a fake terror group in Lebanon: The Front for the Liberation of Lebanon from Foreigners (FLLF).  It operated in Lebanon between 1980 and 1983. While it claimed to be a Lebanese resistance movement, it was actually a covert terrorist organisation run by the Zionist regime. It was established on the orders of Rafael Eitan, then Chief of Staff of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), and was overseen by Israeli General Avigdor Ben-Gal and Meir Dagan, who later became the director of Mossad. Its primary goal was to “cause chaos among the Palestinians and Syrians in Lebanon” without leaving an Israeli fingerprint. The group engaged in car bombings and other terrorist activities targeting Palestinian and Syrian interests, often under the guise of Lebanese sectarian infighting. 

But have they operated false flags in Europe?  As is widely known an MI5 whistleblower, Annie Machon, has claimed that MI5 concluded that the Zionists bombed their own embassy in London in 1994. It’s also known that Zionists executed the famous Palestinian cartoonist Naji El Ali in Knightsbridge in London in 1987 using Palestinians to carry out the act to cover their tracks. In 1988  Margaret Thatcher – yes Margaret Thatcher – expelled the whole Mossad station from the country as a result. 

More recently an apparent rash of “antisemitic” attacks in Australia was revealed by the New South Wales Police to have been a hoax in March 2025.  The alleged attacks were reportedly undertaken by an organised crime network.  Zionist regime sources pushed this line in Australia:

• Peter Wertheim Executive Council of Australian Jewry – “low-level local criminals paid to provide crime as a service… a web of local and off-shore criminal intermediaries.” (27 August 2025)
• Mossad (official statement released via Israeli Prime Minister’s Office) – “terror without Iranian fingerprints, high compartmentalization, recruitment of foreigners, use of criminals, and covert communications,” (26 October 2025).

This alleged use of criminal networks was a key element in the saga of Ashab al-Amin, the ones that actually happened at least.

The Ministry of Diaspora Affairs  claimed that the attacks might involve “Contracted operatives – local criminals or youth recruited and paid through intermediaries, similar to models previously used by Iranian networks in Europe.” 

The ICCT ludicrously tried to explain away the anomalies by claiming (links in original): 

Another relevant development is the emergence of a new crime–terror nexus, whereby hostile state actors increasingly cultivate ties with criminal networks, ranging from organised crime groups to local petty criminals, and leverage them for hybrid activities. Iran, for instance, has reportedly commissioned criminal gangs such as Foxtrot and Rumba in Sweden, including for the aforementioned grenade attack against the Israeli embassy, as well as groups such as the Hells Angels for attacks against synagogues in Germany.

Is this a new Mossad Modus Operandi? Employing “gig criminals” to carry out fake terror plots to pursue particular foreign policy objectives?  If so, as millions have now discovered: when it comes to Zionism – every accusation could be a confession.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect MintPress News editorial policy.

Republish our stories! MintPress News is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 International License.