Swedish intelligence says Iran may have had role in Israeli embassy attacks in Nordics
There were explosions, gunfire near Israel’s embassies in Stockholm, Copenhagen this week; Sweden has previously accused Iran of recruiting criminals to attack Israeli targets
The Swedish intelligence agency Sapo said Thursday that Iran may have been involved in explosions and gunfire around Israeli embassies in Sweden and Denmark this week.
In Denmark, police said they arrested three Swedish nationals on Wednesday after two blasts, likely caused by hand grenades, close to the Israeli embassy in Copenhagen.
On Tuesday, the Israeli embassy in Stockholm was targeted in a shooting, according to Swedish police.
Asked about reports of links to Iran, Fredrik Hallstrom, head of operations at the Sapo agency, told a press conference that “there are some things that could point in that direction.”
“In part due to the choice of targets and modus operandi, but that is an assumption rather than pure knowledge,” Hallstrom said.
In May, Sapo said that Iran was recruiting members of Swedish criminal gangs to commit “acts of violence” against Israeli and other interests in Sweden — a claim Iran denied.
Swedish broadcaster SVT on Wednesday reported that it had received information that the two latest embassy attacks had been ordered by the Swedish criminal network Foxtrot — at the behest of Iran.
Today, three men from Sweden were arrested after throwing hand grenades near the Israeli Embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Stay tuned.pic.twitter.com/DHOagpD4Ix
— Steve Hanke (@steve_hanke) October 2, 2024
A Danish court on Thursday remanded two of the arrested Swedes — aged 16 and 19 — in custody for 27 days.
Copenhagen police said that the third Swede, arrested near the crime scene, had been released.
Thursday’s hearing was held behind closed doors after the preliminary charges were read. Reporting from inside the court room, Danish broadcaster DR said the teenagers, aged 16 and 19, are suspected of acting “in association and together with prior agreement with one or more perpetrators.”
Both denied the charges, local media reported.
The two suspects were arrested Wednesday shortly before noon on a train at Copenhagen’s central station. Danish media ran photos of a man in a white hazmat suit being taken away by police on a train platform at the station.
In Denmark, the charges are one step short of formal charges and allow authorities to keep criminal suspects in custody during an investigation.
The Danish domestic security service, known by its acronym PET, said that “Swedish authorities have assessed that at least one specific act directed at the Israeli embassy in Stockholm, which was carried out by young criminals in Sweden, has links to Iran.”
In a statement, PET said, “if we have a state actor who gets young criminals to carry out actions aimed at Jewish targets in our neighboring country, then we can be concerned that this will also happen in Denmark.”
Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023, when Hamas stormed into Israeli, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, several incidents apparently targeting Israeli interests in Sweden have been reported.
In February, police found a grenade on the grounds of the Israeli embassy compound, which the ambassador said was an attempted attack.
In May, gunshots were fired outside the Israeli embassy, which prompted the country to boost security measures around Israeli interests and Jewish community institutions.
The Times of Israel Community.