UK says an Iran-backed group was behind attacks on Jews, bans Revolutionary Guard

A series of arson and vandalism attacks on Jewish sites in Britain were the work of a proxy group backed by Iran, the UK government says.

The government says it is banning the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right, or IMCR, also known as Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia.

It also bans Iran’s powerful paramilitary Revolutionary Guard as a threat to national security. Committing sabotage on behalf of the groups will be punishable by up to life imprisonment after Parliament approves the legislation, which the government expects to take place by the end of the week.

Security Minister Angela Eagle says in a statement that the IMCR has claimed seven attacks in the UK. The group said online that it was responsible for a string of arson attacks on Jewish sites in London in recent months, including fires at synagogues and Jewish charity ambulances, as well as a Persian-language media organization critical of Iran’s government. No one were injured in the blazes.

“Sitting behind IMCR were members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force, who almost certainly directed IMCR attacks across Europe,” she says. Quds, or Jerusalem, Force is the Guard’s expeditionary unit.