A Terror Group Assembled Online. Then Synagogues Burned.
On July 13, 2026, Britain outlawed the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right, a proxy group that appeared online this spring and claimed a string of arson attacks on London synagogues and other Jewish sites. Reporting has traced how the Iran-linked campaign broadcast its claims and sought recruits on Telegram; the government proscribed Iran’s Revolutionary Guard alongside it.
The group had barely existed for four months. It surfaced on social media earlier in 2026, gave itself a name and a logo, announced attacks it said it had carried out, and used messaging channels to look for people willing to carry out more. On July 13, the British government declared it a terrorist organization.
The Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right — also known as Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia — was banned after a series of arson and vandalism attacks on Jewish sites that the government said were the work of a proxy group backed by Iran, according to The Associated Press. In the same move, Britain proscribed Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the volunteer corps of Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency, Al Jazeera reported.
A movement that sprang up online
Security Minister Angela Eagle said the group had claimed seven attacks in the United Kingdom, according to the Associated Press. The group had 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 at Jewish charity ambulances, as well as an attack on a Persian-language media organization critical of Iran’s government — and had also claimed synagogue attacks in Belgium and the Netherlands, the same report said.
CNN, which examined the group’s online footprint, reported that it emerged in March, said it was targeting “Zionist” interests, and had claimed at least 17 incidents across Europe, disseminating its claims through short videos branded with its logo and circulated on Telegram and X. The pattern — a name conjured overnight, a claim of responsibility posted before investigators can confirm anything — is one counter-terrorism analysts have come to associate with state-directed operations run at arm’s length.
Recruiting on Telegram
Beyond claiming attacks, the network appeared to be using social media to find people to carry them out. Journalists at CNN, posing as young, London-based Telegram users, found channels advertising themselves as Iranian intelligence and openly soliciting recruits. One channel, calling itself VIPEmployment, asked what the reporter could do “against Zionist individuals or assets” and said it was looking to “hire anyone who can harm Israeli interests or individuals,” the network reported.
Another channel sought “high-paid agents in a completely secure and professional environment with 24/7 monitoring and support,” posting in English and Hebrew, according to CNN. The outlet reported apparent links between the group and an Iran-backed paramilitary, and said that after its investigation was published, the Telegram channels it had examined were removed from the platform. The arrangement, investigators say, lets a state sponsor outsource violence to local recruits while preserving deniability.
Arson, and a national alarm
The attacks had already put Britain’s Jewish community on edge for months. In March 2026, arsonists set fire to Jewish charity ambulances in London, and police said they were investigating a possible Iranian link, NPR reported. By late April, after further arson and a stabbing, Britain described the rise in antisemitic violence as an emergency, according to NPR.
British police were separately probing the shadowy group behind the arson spree, NBC News reported. The government said the designations announced in July covered attacks and attempted attacks targeting Jewish communities, journalists and Israeli interests in Britain and across Europe, according to the Associated Press.
What the ban does
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood set out the measures in a written statement to Parliament, making support for the banned organizations — from expressing approval to providing practical assistance — a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison, according to the Associated Press and the UK Parliament record. Proscription places the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right alongside the Revolutionary Guard on Britain’s list of banned groups, Al Jazeera reported.
The case shows how little a modern threat now needs to get started. A logo, a channel and a claim of responsibility can be assembled online in an afternoon, months before anything reaches a synagogue door. What the July designations acknowledge is that the online scaffolding — the accounts that recruit, brand and broadcast — is no longer a sideshow to the violence. Increasingly, governments are treating it as part of the crime.