Skip to main content

3 more men arrested in suspected antisemitic ambulance torching in London

LONDON (AP) — Three additional suspects were arrested Wednesday on arson charges in the torching of four ambulances owned by a Jewish charity in London, police said.

Two British men, ages 20 and 19, and a 17-year-old boy with dual British and Pakistani nationality, were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit arson with intent to endanger life, London’s Metropolitan Police Service said in a statement.

Counterterror police are investigating the fire as an antisemitic hate crime. They were looking into a claim of responsibility by a group with potential links to Iran, but have not declared it an act of terrorism.

Two other men, ages 45 and 47, were previously released on bail after being arrested on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life.

The March 23 blaze in Golders Green, a north London neighborhood with a large Jewish population, destroyed four ambulances belonging to the volunteer organization Hatzola Northwest, which provides emergency care in the area. Oxygen cylinders in the vehicles exploded, breaking windows in an adjacent apartment block.

“Since this appalling attack last week, we have been working continuously to investigate and identify those responsible,” Cmdr. Helen Flanagan, head of counterterror policing, said. “We know concern among the Jewish community remains high, but I hope these arrests show that we are doing everything we can to bring those responsible to justice.”

Iran attacks Bahrain and Kuwait following US strikes, threatens to end talks to end the war

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard launched drone and missile attacks Sunday targeting Bahrain and Kuwait in response to U.S. airstrikes that hit the Islamic Republic, and threatened a “complete halt” could come to negotiations to end the war if Washington continues its attacks. Efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf that once carried a fifth of the world's oil and natural gas, without Iran's direct oversight sparked the crossfire now gripping the region. A multinational maritime body overseen by the U.S. Navy said Saturday that it would expand a route near Oman in the Strait of Hormuz to allow for both inbound and outbound traffic — setting up a new flashpoint with Tehran. Iran insists it alone must govern the strait after the war, upending decades of the world considering that the strait was international waters free for all, despite its sitting in Iran and Oman's territorial waters. Tehran has twice attacked vessels going through the Oman route, backed by a United Nations agency, in recent days. Early Sunday, the U.S. military’s Central Command said it struck Iranian military “surveillance infrastructure, communication systems, air defense sites, drone storage facilities and minelayer capabilities” following an attack on a ship at sea early Saturday morning. That ship, the Panamanian-flagged tanker Kiku, carried crude oil for the state-run energy company of Qatar, a key negotiator between Iran and the United States.
Read Next Story