Iran-run hit squads on streets of UK linked to 15 threats to kill or kidnap as part of campaign of intimidation
IRAN-run hit squads on the streets of the UK have been linked to 15 threats to kill or kidnap detected by authorities.
They are part of a campaign of intimidation aimed at those who speak out against the hardline regime.
And, according to a report, London is a hotspot for such threats, seemingly orchestrated by the Iranian regime’s ruthless enforcer — its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Journalist Pouria Zeraati, 36, was ambushed outside his home in Wimbledon last month, with the suspects believed to be proxy agents hired by Tehran.
Investigators think the three culprits were able to flee the country on a flight from Heathrow within hours of the attack.
Mr Zeraati works for Iran International, a London-based Persian-speaking channel which has reported on Iran’s human rights violations. He said a man approached him and asked for £3 before another man appeared and stabbed him in the leg.
The two fled in a car being driven by a third man, leaving Mr Zeraati bleeding in the street.
He thinks the attack was a “warning shot” from Tehran.
His wife, Oldouz Rezvani, was previously approached by men who told her they knew where the family lived.
Now recovering but living under 24-hour police protection, Mr Zeraati yesterday called on the Government to declare the IRGC a terrorist group to stop it spreading its doctrine.
He said: “It will also send a clear message to the regime in Iran that enough is enough.
“The whole of Western civilisation is in danger because of the threat the IRGC poses.”
There has been no official explanation for why he was targeted and Iran’s charge d’affaires in the UK has denied that his country had any involvement.
But the regime has publicly called for the killing of those in the UK who pose a threat to its tyranny.
In 2022, Commander-in-Chief of the IRGC Major Gen Hossein Salami warned: “You’ve tried us before. Watch out because we’re coming for you.”
A report by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) found almost half of journalists who covered Iran from the UK reported being physically or verbally harassed in the past five years.
One female reporter said she arrived home one day to find a man in her house. When she tried to run, he grabbed her and threw her down the stairs.
She said: “I started screaming. I shut the door. I started running down the stairs, but he ran.
“And he grabbed me in the middle of the stairs and I thought, OK. I saw death.”
Months later police told the woman a member of an armed Eastern European gang had confessed to breaking into her home.
Tehran is known to collaborate with hired criminals to carry out intimidation for the regime, concealing the line back to Iran.
HIRED CRIMINALS
Another respondent to the report said that his TV journalist wife was approached on a London bus by a man who told her: “We will kill you. You are a very bad person.”
One journalist who spoke to RSF said she had a package, which was designed to look like it contained anthrax, hand-delivered to her apartment block.
Many UK-based journalists are living in fear.
One said they were constantly worried about Iran targeting their children, saying: “I wake up in the middle of night. I check my son to see if he’s there. I don’t let him play in the garden on his own. I have to be there. I’m on alert constantly.”
More than 60 per cent of those questioned said the threat had affected their family life, with a quarter saying they had been forced to make changes to their daily routine.
Individuals have been sent death threats by text and voicenotes, with one message noting that the “water underneath Westminster Bridge was very deep”.
LIVING IN FEAR
Another was told, “Find a grave for yourself in London. Don’t be surprised if you are shot one day” and “We will kill your mum, we will kill your mum”.
Last year Security Minister Tom Tugendhat told the Commons there had already been at least 15 credible threats to kill or kidnap UK-based individuals since the start of 2022.
They include the attacks plotted by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Mohammed Mehdi Mozayyani, who planned assassinations on British soil.
Mr Tugendhat said: “Let me be clear: this is a persistent threat, this is not carried out by rogue elements, but is a conscious strategy of the Iranian regime.”