Over the weekend, the United States State Department issued a worldwide security alert for Americans abroad.
Event: The Department of State advises Americans worldwide, and especially in the Middle East, to exercise increased caution. Americans abroad should follow the guidance in security alerts issued by the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate. Periodic airspace closures may cause travel disruptions. U.S. diplomatic facilities, including outside the Middle East, have been targeted. Groups supportive of Iran may target other U.S. interests overseas or locations associated with the United States and/or Americans throughout the world.
The important phrase is ‘groups supportive of Iran, ‘ and that warning is as timely for anyone anywhere in the world as it is for US citizens here and abroad.
In Great Britain, they woke up to such a case this morning for all that their milquetoast prime minister has done to distance himself from events in the Middle East.
I’m sorry, Starmer – it’s too late. You’d already left the door open, and they moved in ages ago.
This was the scene, caught on security cameras late last night, as three shadowy figures came into view and set fire to ambulances owned by a volunteer Hassidic EMT service.
BREAKING 🔴🔴
An IRGC terror group in the UK, called Ashab al-Yamin takes responsibility for torching 4 ambulances belonging to a Jewish volunteer EMT services in Golders Green, London last night.
The terrorists are on the loose.
The UK is dealing with a serious problem. pic.twitter.com/z728w4R17d
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) March 23, 2026
You could tell the Iranian bots were out working overtime, because they were dropping community notes on this post almost as fast as it had gone up, that there was nothing linking the Iranian Republican Guard to the group or this particular arsonist escapade.
Well, hello. All of the information was in the Reuters report that accompanied the video, including that the group had claimed the attack.
London Jewish community ambulances set ablaze in antisemitic attack, PM says
Four Jewish community ambulances were set ablaze in north London on Monday in what British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called “a deeply shocking antisemitic arson attack”.
The London Fire Brigade said multiple cylinders on the vehicles exploded, shattering nearby windows. No injuries were reported and no arrests have been made.
The SITE Intelligence website said an Iran-aligned multinational militant collective called Islamic Movement of the People of the Right Hand had claimed responsibility for the attack near a synagogue in Golders Green.
It said the group had been behind similar fires in Liege, Belgium, and Rotterdam and Amsterdam in the Netherlands.British lawmakers and the domestic spy agency MI5 have warned of threats posed by Iran, including the surveillance or targeting of Jewish sites. Tehran has denied such accusations.
It was a pretty devastating midnight assault on a purely altruistic service for the community.
…The ambulances belonged to the volunteer-run charity Hatzola, which was established in 1979, providing medical transport free of charge for residents of North London.
Rabbi Mirvis condemned the incident in a statement on X. “The deliberate arson attacks against Hatzola ambulances in London are a particularly sickening assault – not only on the Jewish community, but on the values we share as a society,” he said. “Our Hatzola volunteer ambulance corps is an extraordinary service, whose sole mission is to protect life, Jewish and non-Jewish alike.
🚨 BREAKING: Major antisemitic arson attack in Golders Green, London destroys all ambulances (at least 4) of Hatzola Northwest — a volunteer Jewish emergency service providing 24/7 medical aid. @Breaking911 has seen footage of the attackers. pic.twitter.com/GwCWXG38qB
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) March 23, 2026
As the day has progressed and more has become known about both this shadowy little group – and it is small – and how these types of loose-knit groups are connected to the Iranians, it is really eye-opening and should be very instructive for law enforcement here.
It is literally going to be like chasing innerwebs phantoms.
One source specialising in Iranian external operations told LBC the group claiming responsibility appears to have little real-world structure, raising the prospect of state-backed direction operating behind the scenes.
“The group concerned primarily appears to exist as a Telegram channel which had approximately 100 members as of this morning,” the source said.
“Rather than them actually existing in any meaningful form and carrying out attacks against European Jewish communities, it is a realistic possibility that an Iranian security agency is responsible, either instructing local agents case officers have recruited and trained or simply paying criminal elements to do their bidding.
“It is also a realistic possibility that an Iranian proxy supported by the IRGC’s Quds Force such as Iraqi or Lebanese Hezbollah are issuing instructions rather than a security agency.”
They’re calling it the ‘terror gig economy‘ as state-sponsored agencies shift to paying street gangs and criminals to do their dirty work, as opposed to having organized cells of operatives.
…But there is a growing concern among security officials that hostile states are shifting tactics, relying less on trained operatives and more on loosely organised, deniable networks that can be activated quickly and cheaply.
Roger Macmillan, former Director of Safety and Security at Iran International, told LBC Iran is increasingly adopting what he described as a “violence-as-a-service” model.
“This is no longer traditional state-sponsored terrorism,” he said.
“Iran has adopted what I’d call a violence-as-a-service model, essentially a gig economy for terrorism recruited through overt channels on Telegram.
“The IRGC now uses street-level criminals, thugs and teenagers as disposable operatives. It’s the same playbook Russia has used, only more blatant; outsource the violence, maintain the deniability.”
Obviously, the advantages outweigh the negatives for the Iranians. These loosely organized street thugs come and go, can’t be traced easily, the online platforms they use for communication leave faint, if any, vapor trails that are difficult to follow when they pull the plug on dialogs, and it’s the very devil to tie any of the activity back to a source for attribution.
It’s an episode of the cyber hub of 24 in real life.
… For investigators, the central question is no longer just who lit the match, but who may have been behind the screen. The use of encrypted platforms, informal networks and low-level recruits makes attribution harder, slows response times and blurs the line between organised terrorism and opportunistic crime.
Which, as one senior source put it privately, is exactly the point.
British counter-terrorism police are looking for the three suspects.
And, shockingly enough, the British government is providing replacement ambulances.
Home secretary Shabana Mahmood has vowed to “pursue” anybody who may have attacked Hatzola in north-west London, and “make them face the consequences of this wicked crime”.
She told the Commons that “mercifully, no one was hurt” in the incident.
“And for that, we owe our thanks to the police and fire services who responded with speed and professionalism,” Mahmood continued.
“An investigation is underway. We know the Metropolitan Police are treating this as an antisemitic hate crime and have stepped up their support to Jewish communities across London.
“That the attack was directed at Hatzola, a community ambulance service, an institution devoted to saving lives, illustrates how warped those behind this attack are.
“I am pleased that the health secretary [Wes Streeting] is providing replacement ambulances but clearly justice is required.
I guess this was so blatantly a targeted anti-Semitic act, and they’ve been under fire for being so squeamishly weak against Muslim aggression that Starmer’s government was forced into forceful language they wouldn’t normally use and mitigating actions they wouldn’t normally take.
As one of the paramedics with the ambulance service told The Guardian, this has been ‘simmering’ for a long time, and it is long past time for the wave of anti-Semitism to be handled.
…Everyone is still reeling from the attack. Despite what society has become, it is still not expected, but we soldier on.
It has been somewhat simmering under the surface. There has definitely been a significant rise in antisemitism, and there is an intrinsic problem nationwide that does need to be addressed urgently.
Long past time, including the fact that the Iranians were known to be an active threat long before that first bomb was dropped.
…Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, who is on a trip to San Francisco to meet the FBI, said the UK faces a “long and sustained threat” from Iranian plots, citing MI5 chief Sir Ken McCallum’s assessment that there were more than 20 Iranian-backed plots in the UK in the previous 12 months.
Mr Rowley said some had been targeted at members of the Iranian diaspora while other were against Israeli or Jewish targets.
Security around synagogues and Jewish schools has been increased since terrorist attack on a synagogue in Manchester in October. Three people were killed, including the attacker who was shot dead by police.
While the UK dilly dallies and agonizes over a ‘non-statutory’ Islamophobia definition to make their burgeoning and kind of unfriendly population of newcomers feel more loved…
…Earlier this month, the UK adopted a new definition of anti-Muslim hostility as part of a broader strategy to tackle rising hate crime.
The UK charity regulator will also receive new powers to address extremism and the promotion of hatred.
Communities Secretary Steve Reed said the government had a responsibility to respond to record levels of Islamophobia and was adopting a non-statutory definition of anti-Muslim hostility.
While the definition does not refer to Islamophobia by name, it designates anti-Muslim hostility as “intentionally engaging in, assisting or encouraging criminal acts … that are directed at Muslims because of their religion”.
…one hopes that they’ll take as serious a look at other groups being targeted for some ‘hate’ treatment doled out by those very same Islamic types.
It still seems awfully one-sided to me.
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