On March 11, a group called the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right (IMCR), a previously unknown organization, claimed responsibility for detonating a bomb against a synagogue in Liège, Belgium, on March 9. On March 11, the group claimed another attack in Greece but offered no details on the specific location or target. The claimed attacks could signal that Iran or Iran-aligned actors are executing acts of terrorism in Europe amid the escalating regional conflict involving the United States, Israel, and the Islamic Republic.
At approximately 4 am on March 9, an explosion occurred in front of the Synagogue of Liège, damaging windows across the street but resulting in no injuries, the BBC reported. An official said that an investigation of the attack is being led by Belgium’s federal prosecutor’s office, which is responsible for investigating terrorism and organized crime cases.
Later that day, a statement seemingly published by IMCR called on the “warriors of Islam” to defend their religion. On March 11, a video emerged on social media that showed masked men apparently detonating an explosive device in front of the Synagogue of Liège. Both the statement and the video feature a logo with a hand clutching a rifle and the group’s name. The name of the organization and its logo resemble those of Iraqi armed groups and Hezbollah, both of which are closely aligned with and supported by Iran.
FDD’s Long War Journal could not verify the original source of the statement and video. Telegram channels linked to the Axis of Resistance — a Tehran-directed network of terrorist groups spanning Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq, Yemen, and, historically, Syria — widely disseminated the publications.
Belgium’s federal prosecutor’s office said that it was analyzing the video to determine where it originated and if it is genuine, the Flemish Radio and Television broadcasting organization (VRT) reported.
A second video linked to IMCR also emerged on social media on March 11. The footage, bearing the same logo as the video from the synagogue attack, seemingly showed two individuals running away from an apparent blast. The footage is captioned with the message that a “Zionist” was targeted in Greece on March 11.
Unlike the bombing in Liège, there was no open-source evidence of suspected acts of terrorism that occurred in Greece on the date the video claimed. Long War Journal also could not verify the source of the video. However, as with the previous claim, the footage was widely disseminated on Telegram by channels supporting the Axis of Resistance.
Currently, it’s unclear if IMCR is a genuine organization linked to Iran, a front group associated with the Islamic Republic’s network of bad actors, or a hoax. However, there are cases of Iran attempting to carry out acts of terrorism on European soil. In 2018, European authorities foiled a plot orchestrated by Iranian diplomat Assadollah Assadi to bomb a rally of the Iranian opposition group National Council of Resistance of Iran near Paris. Assadi was later convicted in Belgium and sentenced to 20 years in prison for supplying explosives and directing the operatives tasked with carrying out the attack.
On March 8, Majid Takht-Ravanchi, Iran’s deputy-foreign minister, warned that if a European country joined the US and Israel in the current war against the Islamic Republic, it would be a “legitimate” target “for Iranian retaliation.”
Joe Truzman is an editor and senior research analyst at FDD's Long War Journal focused primarily on Palestinian armed groups and non-state actors in the Middle East.
