IRAN may be about to unleash a global terror campaign which could see Israeli civilian aircraft blown up on the tarmac in airports across Europe, intelligence officials have warned. Israel’s internal security service, known as Shin Bet, has announced it is deploying hundreds of officers and operatives across Europe in a frantic bid to thwart the Islamic regime’s doomsday plan.
Between them, Israeli airlines El Al, Arkia, Israir, and Air Haifa boast a fleet of around 100 planes. But all Israeli- and Jewish-identified assets – ranging from diplomatic missions, synagogues, cultural organisations, and commercial offices – are said to be at risk.
Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, is currently hiding in a bunker in northern Tehran. Government officials are also believed to have been frozen out of financial accounts following Israeli cyber attacks earlier this week which paralysed banks and disrupted cryptocurrency markets across Iran.
But it is feared that the beleaguered regime had already put contingency plans in place earlier this year to activate proxies across Europe – plans that may already be funded.
Hezbollah has been largely neutralised in southern Lebanon, yet the radical militia has a long record of planning and executing attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets in Europe, and Hezbollah mujahideen are believed to continue operating with impunity across Europe and parts of South America.
While Shin Bet is primarily an internal security agency, it is specifically tasked with safeguarding Israeli
aviation abroad – an unusual mandate for a domestic service, and a reflection of the high threat level facing Israeli civil aviation.
Specific mention of commercial planes and airliners as targets in the alleged intelligence reports indicates concrete information about Iranian plots in the wake of the Israel–Iran escalation, experts said last night.
It comes as Israel is working to repatriate roughly 100,000 citizens who have been stranded abroad since the outbreak of conflict with Iran last week.
“The recent cyber attacks carried out by Israeli hacktivist organisation Predatory Sparrow are having an impact on the way the Islamic regime can finance itself,” said regional expert Megan Sutcliffe of the Sibylline strategic risk group.
“But in the same way that it pre-delivered high-capacity missiles to Iraq in April, it might have left slush funds with some of its proxies in anticipation of problems down the road.”
She added: “What we don’t know, however, is whether these proxies will do as is expected of them or not. They might, presumably, be just seeing which way the wind blows.
“This has become an increasing concern for the regime as we see this conflict continue to develop.”
