Iran could be behind attacks on Israeli embassies, says Sweden

Swedish security service Sapo said Iran may have been involved in the explosions and shooting that occurred near the Israeli embassies in Stockholm and Copenhagen earlier this week.

Sapo’s Fredrik Hallstrom said the choice of targets and methods pointed toward Iran, but added that this was “an assumption rather than pure knowledge.”

On Monday evening, shots were fired at the Israeli embassy in Stockholm. Nobody was injured.

Then, in the early hours of Wednesday morning, two explosions were reported near the Israeli embassy in central Copenhagen.

Two Swedish teenagers, aged 16 and 19, were arrested at Copenhagen train station later that afternoon. One of them had reportedly bought tickets to Amsterdam.

On Thursday, the two were accused of possessing hand grenades and detonating them near the embassy.

They pleaded not guilty and remained in custody until October 30. A third Swedish citizen who was arrested near the embassy was later released.

Danish police have not confirmed whether the Israeli embassy was the target of the explosions. There are other embassies near the intersection where the explosions were heard.

It is not the first time that incidents of this kind have occurred near Israeli embassies in a Nordic capital.

In January, A “dangerous object” was found in front of the Israeli embassy in Stockholm and destroyed what the Israeli ambassador described as an “attempted attack.”

At the time, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson described the situation as “very serious” and promised to increase surveillance of the embassy and Jewish institutions.

And in May, gunshots were heard around the same embassy. A number of teenagers were investigated in connection with the shooting, but some were later released.

After this incident, Sapo warned that the Iranian government was recruiting Swedish gang members to carry out acts of violence against other groups and individuals in Sweden.

Last month, Sapo also blamed Iranian intelligence Hacking into an SMS service Sending 15,000 messages to Sweden aimed at creating divisions in society and portraying Sweden as an Islamophobic country.

The messages were sent around the time Swedish anti-Islam activists set fire to copies of the Islamic holy book.

The Iranian embassy in Stockholm rejected the allegations, calling them “baseless” and damaging to relations between the two countries.