Synagogues, Schools, Ambulances: Iran’s Shadow Network Struck Across Europe
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has been running a covert terror network across Europe and North America, according to a newly unsealed U.S. Department of Justice indictment. The accused, Mohammad Baqer Saad Daoud Al-Saadi, a 32-year-old commander of Kataib Hezbollah, was arrested in Turkey while reportedly heading to Moscow. He pleaded not guilty in court last week.
Al-Saadi is accused of coordinating attacks through a front organization called Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya, or HAYI, which U.S. authorities say operates as a cover for Iran's IRGC. The group emerged in March 2026, just days after a sharp escalation in U.S.-Israeli operations against the Iranian regime. Since then, it has claimed responsibility for at least 18 attacks across Europe, hitting synagogues, Jewish schools, ambulances, and community centers. Videos of the attacks are distributed directly through pro-Iranian networks to maximize psychological impact.
HAYI has claimed responsibility for at least 18 attacks across Europe, hitting synagogues, Jewish schools, ambulances, and community centers.
The DOJ indictment also alleges Al-Saadi was actively plotting attacks against a well-known synagogue in New York City and Jewish community centers in Los Angeles and Scottsdale, Arizona. The network's strategy mirrors Russia's well-documented hybrid warfare playbook, using disposable agents, including minors, to carry out targeted operations in Western countries. Russian intelligence has separately recruited over 800 Ukrainians for arson, infrastructure sabotage, and espionage operations across Britain, Poland, Germany, and the Baltic states.
Europol warned this year that political polarization, antisemitism, and immigration integration tensions are being deliberately exploited as entry points for exactly this type of operation. A December 2025 court case in Smederevo, Serbia, showed how it works in practice: three Serbian nationals were convicted for placing pig heads outside nine Paris mosques and vandalizing Jewish sites, acts court documents confirmed were organized and funded by Russian intelligence to deepen religious and ethnic divisions in France. Their sentences ranged from six to eighteen months of house arrest with electronic monitoring.
Western intelligence agencies are now pushing for a stronger coordinated response, including cyber operations to expose recruitment networks, blocking HAYI propaganda channels, and new sanctions against states funding these operations. Analysts warn that Al-Saadi's arrest may only temporarily disrupt HAYI's activity, as Tehran has proven willing to continue replacing its operatives.
