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Two Iranians Charged With Plotting Manchester Jewish Attack
Confirmed
In Short: Two Iranian men were charged with planning a terror attack on the Jewish community in Manchester, UK, following their arrest last Sunday.
Two Iranian men, Salam Ahmadyan, 36, and Rahman Salehi, 35, were charged with offenses related to preparing an act of terrorism or assisting another person in carrying out one, UK police announced Friday.
The arrests occurred on September 20 in Manchester, just hours before the start of the Jewish Day of Atonement, a year after a deadly attack at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue where two worshippers were killed.
The arrests were part of a fast-moving counterterrorism investigation in Greater Manchester that involved an alleged threat to the Jewish community.
The past year has seen a series of attacks in the UK targeting Jewish or Israel-linked locations, highlighting the ongoing security concerns for these communities.
Background
Two Iranian men were charged with planning a terror attack on the Jewish community in Manchester, UK.
What's confirmed
- LONDON: Two Iranian men have been charged with plotting a terror attack on the Jewish community in Manchester, UK police said Friday.
- “Salam Ahmadyan 36 of Liverpool and Rahman Salehi 34 of Salford, both Iranian nationals, were arrested in Manchester on Sunday, 20 September,” Friday’s police statement said.
- The arrests come nearly a year after a deadly knife and gun attack on the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in northern Manchester where worshippers had gathered for Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
- The past year has seen a spate of attacks in the British capital targeting Jewish or Israel-linked locations.
What's still developing
- Police announced last week that two men had been arrested on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack and said officers believed they had disrupted a plot targeting the Jewish community in the Greater Manchester area.
- Scene of last year’s synagogue attack in Manchester ( Photo: Paul Currie / AFP ) Frank Ferguson, head of the Crown Prosecution Service’s Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said prosecutors had authorized charges following “a fast-moving counterterrorism investigation in Greater Manchester throughout September” involving an alleged threat to the Jewish community.