A previously unknown group calling itself Ashab Al Yamim has claimed responsibility for at least four attacks on Jewish institutions across Europe in the space of five days. The coordinated campaign, which began with a synagogue bombing in Liège, Belgium, on March 9 and escalated to an explosion at a Jewish school in Amsterdam on March 14, represents the most sustained wave of antisemitic violence on the continent in years.
Four teenagers have been arrested in connection with the Rotterdam synagogue attack. A suspect in the Amsterdam school bombing has been captured on CCTV. Security at Jewish institutions across Europe has been heightened. The group itself appears to have materialized from nowhere, with no prior social media presence, no known organizational history, and no membership base that intelligence services have publicly identified.
What they do have is a logo that borrows heavily from Iran’s network of proxy militiasA non-state armed group that receives funding, weapons, or direction from a foreign state to conduct military operations while maintaining the state's deniability., and attack footage that circulated on Shia axis Telegram channels within hours of each incident.
The Attacks, in Sequence
The first strike came at approximately 4:00 a.m. on March 9, when an explosive device detonated at the entrance of a synagogue in Liège, Belgium. The blast blew out the windows of the 1899-built synagogue, which also serves as a museum for the history of Liège’s Jewish community, and shattered windows across the street. No one was injured. Belgium’s Interior Minister Bernard Quintin called it “a despicable antisemitic act that directly targeted Belgium’s Jewish community,” according to France 24. The mayor of Liège, Willy Demeyer, condemned the attack and noted that “we cannot allow foreign conflicts to be imported into our city,” a reference to the ongoing US-Israeli military campaign against Iran.
On March 12, Ashab Al Yamim claimed an attack in Greece, though Greek authorities have not released details about the target, method, or any suspects. No Greek media outlet has published an in-depth account, and the incident has received minimal international coverage compared to the attacks in Belgium and the Netherlands.
The third attack came in the early hours of March 13, when an explosive device detonated at the entrance of a synagogue in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, sparking a fire that burned itself out. Dutch police arrested four teenage suspects, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. The suspects, reportedly from Tilburg (roughly an hour south of Rotterdam), were apprehended near a second synagogue after police noticed a vehicle driving erratically.
The fourth attack struck overnight on March 14. An explosion hit the outer wall of the Cheider, an Orthodox Jewish school providing primary and secondary education on Zeelandstraat in Amsterdam’s Buitenveldert neighborhood, the city’s modern Jewish quarter. The blast caused limited structural damage and no injuries. Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema called it “a cowardly act of aggression towards the Jewish community,” according to CNN. Police obtained security camera footage showing a suspect placing and igniting the device.
Images circulating online show the same logo appearing in footage from both the Rotterdam and Amsterdam attacks. The Center for Information and Documentation on Israel (CIDI) identified the symbol as belonging to Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiyyah, the full name of the group that had already claimed the Liège bombing.
Who Is Ashab Al Yamim?
The short answer: nobody knows for certain. The name translates roughly as “Companions of the Right” or “People of the Right Hand,” a Quranic reference (not a political designation) denoting the righteous. The group appears to have had no public existence before this week.
Several features of the group’s presentation have drawn the attention of analysts. As the Jerusalem Post reported in an exclusive investigation, Ashab Al Yamim has no Telegram channel, no social media accounts, and no prior claim history. This is unusual. Most militant organizations, even small ones, cultivate a digital presence before or alongside their operations. Ashab Al Yamim skipped that step entirely.
What the group does have is a logo that intelligence analysts have noted bears strong resemblance to those used by established Iran-backed organizations. The emblem features a hand holding a Dragunov rifle superimposed on a globe, a visual grammar shared by Kataib Hezbollah in Iraq, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the IRGCIran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, an elite military and security organization that operates independently from conventional armed forces and oversees external operations and proxy networks. in Iran. The Dragunov is a Soviet-era semi-automatic sniper rifle common in Middle Eastern conflict zones but significantly less common in Europe.
More telling than the logo is the distribution pattern. Videos of each attack appeared rapidly on Shia axis Telegram channels associated with Hezbollah and the IRGC, despite the group having no channels of its own. This suggests either direct coordination with existing networks or, at minimum, a supply chain for propaganda that runs through Iran-aligned infrastructure.
None of this constitutes proof of Iranian state direction. It is circumstantial evidence, and intelligence agencies have not publicly attributed the attacks to Tehran. But the pattern (a group with no history, no independent digital footprint, logos that mirror Iran’s proxy branding, and footage that surfaces on Iran-aligned channels) is consistent with the operational signaturesDistinctive patterns in attack methods, branding, equipment, or tactics that intelligence analysts use to identify an organization's origins or affiliations. of groups that have received support from the IRGC’s external operations network.
The Broader Context
The attacks did not occur in a vacuum. Antisemitic incidents across Europe have surged since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, the subsequent war in Gaza, and the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran that began in March 2026. Belgium’s Jewish community, numbering approximately 50,000 people, has reported weekly incidents of verbal abuse, intimidation, physical violence, and graffiti, according to community organizations cited by the Algemeiner.
The wave is not confined to Europe. In the United States, a man originally from Lebanon attacked a synagogue in Michigan on March 12, the same day as the Greece incident. Canada has also reported heightened threats against Jewish institutions. The UN addressed the pattern in its March 13 briefing.
What distinguishes the Ashab Al Yamim campaign from the broader trend is the coordination. Individual antisemitic attacks, while abhorrent, tend to be opportunistic. A group claiming four attacks across three countries in five days, using consistent branding and operational methods, represents something qualitatively different: an organized campaign with logistical capability. As Art of Truth has previously covered, the question of whether Europe can remain insulated from conflicts involving its allies has been a running theme since the Iran campaign began.
What Authorities Are Doing
Belgian prosecutors specializing in organized crime and terrorism are leading the investigation into the Liège bombing. Dutch police have four suspects in custody from the Rotterdam attack and are analyzing the CCTV footage from Amsterdam. Greek authorities have not publicly identified suspects, named the target, or confirmed the method of attack in the Greece incident, and no press conferences or official statements have been released as of publication.
Security has been heightened at Jewish institutions across Europe, though specifics of the measures have not been widely disclosed. The Dutch government is expected to review its security protocols for Jewish community sites. European Commission and national government statements have condemned the attacks.
The Hezbollah connection, if confirmed, would have significant implications. European governments have spent years debating whether and how to designate Hezbollah’s military wing while maintaining diplomatic contact with its political apparatus. Lebanon’s own government recently moved to ban Hezbollah’s military operations after a ceasefire violation. Evidence that an Iran-linked group is directing attacks on European soil would compress the space for that distinction considerably.
What Remains Unknown
The critical questions are unanswered. Is Ashab Al Yamim an independent group inspired by Iran’s proxy model, or a front for an existing organization? Were the arrested teenagers in Rotterdam recruited operatives or radicalized individuals who adopted the group’s branding? Is the group’s operational capacity limited to incendiary devices, or does it represent a more serious threat? What was the nature of the Greece attack?
The speed of the campaign (four attacks in five days across multiple countries) suggests a level of planning that exceeds what a spontaneous group typically achieves. The use of consistent branding suggests centralized messaging. The targeting of Jewish institutions specifically, rather than Israeli state interests, suggests an antisemitic agenda that goes beyond geopolitical protest.
European intelligence services will need to answer whether this week’s attacks were a one-off demonstration or the opening phase of something more sustained. The answer will determine whether the current security posture is adequate or whether the continent is facing a new category of threat.
