‘Just hired guns’: Iran accused of grooming teenagers to attack Israeli interests abroad

After multiple instances of teenagers shooting at Israeli embassies or companies, eyes have been drawn to Iran, according to a BBC News report published on Thursday. 

Last week, a 13-year-old boy was reportedly arrested for firing shots toward the offices of Israeli tech firm Elbit Systems in Sweden. The case is not dissimilar to the arrest of two Swedish teenagers earlier this month, who allegedly detonated hand grenades out Israel’s embassy in Copenhagen.

“He was basically caught in the act,” police spokesman August Brandt said of the 13-year-old, adding that the case was being investigated as an “attempted murder and weapons offence”.

While the teenagers may have been pulling the trigger, it is reportedly believed by Sweden's security service Sapo that Iran had been behind the incidents. 

Iran's role

Sapo head of operations Fredrik Hallstrom was reported to have described Tehran’s hands in the attacks as an “objective hypothesis”.

Sapo had previously accused Iran of hiring gangs to carry out attacks on the Jewish Diaspora, an accusation Tehran denied.

Despite Tehran claiming that Sapo’s accusations were “unfounded,” a number of experts told the BBC that the teenagers had not been motivated by antisemitism or the Israel-Hamas war.

“To understand why we see young Swedish teenagers attacking Israeli companies and embassies we need to first acknowledge that we have had an ongoing gang conflict here in Sweden for a long time,” said Diamant Salihu, an investigative crime journalist with Swedish public service television SVT. 

Foxtrot, one of Sweden’s most violent gangs, often reportedly tasks teenagers with errand crimes. Foxtrot gang leader Rawa Majid, born in Iran, reportedly returned to country of birth in 2023, according to intelligence shared by Mossad. The Israeli intelligence confirmed Majid was now working with the Islamic Republic and behind the recent number of attacks.

The use of criminal gangs is a well-recorded strategy in Tehran’s playbook, as previously reported by the Jerusalem Post. The Islamic Republic reportedly hired Hell’s Angels and other gangs to hunt down critics and dissidents. 

In Germany, the IRGC was reportedly behind an attack on a synagogue, where a local gang member fired shots. 

Journalist Diamant Salihu said Tehran has sought to persuade the gang to “commit crimes for the regime” - although the gang’s rivals deny sharing such a connection.

Criminology specialist David Sausdal of Lund University, in the south of Sweden, told the BBC "The people involved in it are just hired guns, paid for services. They deliver a pizza or a hand grenade as good as they can.

“They're not super talented at it, they’re not motivated by inner hate or conflict as such. They're just doing a job.”