Police are shown in front of the U.S. embassy in Stockholm, Sweden, Dec. 9, 2017. (Atila Altuntas/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
(JTA) — Two Swedish teens tried to attack the Israeli embassy in Stockholm last year at the direction of Iran, Swedish police determined.
A 15-year-old who was directed to travel to the embassy with a gun last May was arrested before he arrived, but the next day a 14-year-old fired shots near the embassy before being apprehended, according to a new investigation by CNN.
The incidents startled Swedish Jews on edge because of a spike in antisemitism tied to the Israel-Hamas war and came amid a broad uptick in gun violence in Sweden.
The Swedish Security Service soon tied the incidents to Iran, which has a long track record of sowing violence against Jewish and Israeli targets abroad. The service issued a warning that Iran had been using organized crime networks in the country to carry out terror plots.
The Iranian embassy in Sweden called the accusations “fake and propagandistic.”
Last month, following yet another attempted attack on the Israeli embassy in Sweden in January, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned one of the Swedish gangs allegedly behind the plots, a crime ring called Foxtrot, as well as its leader Rawa Majid, over its collusion with Iran.
Majid collaborated with the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security, according to the Treasury’s press release, which also referenced the gang’s manipulation of teenagers to carry out its attacks on Israelis and Jews.
The threats to the Israeli Embassy follow a pattern of reports of Iranian-linked terror plots against Jewish populations and leaders in recent years, including a shooting at a German synagogue and planned attacks at Jewish sites in Cyprus.
Authorities in Australia recently announced that a wave of attacks on Jewish targets were the work of a criminal gang but did not implicate Iran.
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