Iran is recruiting criminals – and even children – to target Israelis abroad, according to reports Saturday night by Bloomberg, Iran International and even the Bangkok Post.
In early October, Iran International quoted a Swedish police source and another informed source in its report warning that Tehran had enlisted criminals to carry out armed attacks on Israeli embassies in Stockholm and Copenhagen, coinciding with its extensive missile barrage against Israel.
Shots were fired at the Israeli embassy in Stockholm that same week, followed by two explosions near Israel’s embassy in central Copenhagen in the early hours of Wednesday. No injuries were reported, and two Swedish teenagers, aged 16 and 19, were later arrested in connection with the incidents.
Tehran is escalating its covert operations in Europe and in Scandinavia, according to the report. The recruiting of children is particularly useful in Sweden and Norway, where perpetrators under age 15 cannot be prosecuted as adults.
However, Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has introduced youth prisons for children under age 15, the Bangkok Post reported. In Norway, the opposition Progress Party is also working towards a similar move.
A 15-year-old boy hoping to attack the Israeli Embassy in Stockholm this past May didn’t even know the address of the embassy when he got into a taxi with a hidden, loaded gun. When the driver asked where they were going, the teen called someone else to get the address. Police stopped the cab on the way, because they had been tracking the teen’s movements.
That same month, Swedish authorities arrested two teenage boys, aged 14 and 15, after a shooting near the Israeli embassy. At the time, Sweden’s intelligence agency accused Tehran of recruiting gang members to attack Israeli interests in the country.
A 13-year-old was caught opening fire at Elbit Systems, an Israeli defense contractor, in the southwestern Swedish city of Gothenburg. A 16-year-old helped his 23-year-old partner plant two vacuum flasks packed with explosives outside the facility’s main entrance. Both were caught, though investigators were unable to discover who transferred money to the pair and gave them instructions.
Security services in Brussels discovered children as young as 14 years old this past May involved in a planned attack on the Israeli Embassy in Belgium.
“The incidents show how the war between Israel and Iran’s proxies across the Middle East is also driving Tehran to escalate its covert operations in Europe — and that is rattling governments already concerned that the conflict is stirring tension between communities divided over immigration,” Bloomberg reported.
Peter Nesser, a terrorism researcher at the Defense Research Institute in Norway, was quoted as saying operatives acting on behalf of the ayatollahs’ regime are recruiting agents via social media platforms like Telegram, TikTok and WhatsApp.
Nesser said a firebomb attack might cost around 120 euros ($125) – but Tehran might pay at least 1,500 euros ($1,560) for a murder.
Britain’s MI5 intelligence agency has issued warnings of increasing Iranian-backed attacks, as have Swedish and Norwegian security services. This past July, Israel issued Level 2 travel warnings (Potential Threat) for citizens planning a trip to Sweden and/or Belgium. Citizens were told to “increase precautionary measures” in both countries. No threat alert was issued for Norway.
