Iran’s involvement in the attacks on the Israeli embassies in Stockholm and Copenhagen earlier this week is an “objective hypothesis”, the head of operations for the Swedish Security Service, Fredrik Hallström, has said.
The target selection and modus operandi suggest Tehran’s involvement in the shooting at the Israeli embassy in Stockholm on Tuesday night (1 October), the official said.
The same goes for the hand grenade explosions near the Israeli embassy in Copenhagen on Wednesday morning (3 October).
“It is similar to what happened on previous occasions”, Hallström said, adding that the targets were Israeli and the modus operandi relied on the use of gang criminals.
These are assumptions for now, not actual knowledge, Hallström added.
Meanwhile, Danish and Swedish police suspect that the Swedish criminal network Foxtrot, led by Iranian-born Rawa Majid, is behind the attacks in Stockholm and Copenhagen on behalf of Iran, Swedish media reported.
Sweden’s security services have previously stated that Iran is using criminals in Sweden to carry out acts of violence, including against Jewish and Israeli interests.
These explosions come against a tense geopolitical backdrop in the Middle East, with Iran firing several hundred rockets at Israel on Tuesday night in response to Israel’s military operation in southern Lebanon.
“The unrest in the world and the escalation in the Middle East are once again making themselves felt and continue to affect Swedish security”, Hallström noted.
No one has yet been arrested in the shooting attack on the Israeli embassy in Stockholm, but two Swedish citizens aged 16 and 19 with possible links to criminal gangs have been arrested in Denmark on suspicion of the attack.
Swedish police speculate that one of the suspects first fired shots at the Israeli embassy in Stockholm, and then boarded a train heading south with the mission to carry out an attack at the embassy in Copenhagen, a report by Swedish media SvD reads.
However, the police will not officially say whether there is a link between the attacks.
“We want to have as good conditions as possible for the investigation to reach its goal and be successful. When it suits the state of the investigation, we will release those details,” Johan Olsson, head of the police’s National Operations Department (NOA), told the press on Thursday.
The shooting in Stockholm is being investigated for aggravated weapons offences, causing danger to others, aggravated unlawful threats and vandalism.
[Edited by Daniel Eck]
Source: euractiv.com
