Two Iranian nationals who entered the UK on small boats have been charged with preparing acts of terrorism over an alleged plot to target Manchester’s Jewish community before Yom Kippur.
Salam Ahmadyan, 36, and Rahman Salehi, 34, were arrested in Manchester’s Northern Quarter on September 20 and charged earlier today.
Counter Terrorism Policing said the men were allegedly in contact with a third party overseas in connection with the suspected plot. Investigators said the contact may have been with Iran.
The pair are understood to have arrived in the UK by small boat in 2020 and 2023. One has been granted asylum, while the other has an active asylum claim.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the allegations would be “deeply distressing” for the Jewish community, adding that both suspects had “arrived by small boat several years ago”.
Police said the men had allegedly obtained a document entitled “steps for making [a] powder chlorine and car brake oil/fluid bomb”, along with video instructions on making or assembling an improvised explosive device.
The charges allege that the suspects searched online for possible targets and carried out “reconnaissance” at the locations.
The alleged terror plot emerged almost a year after the deadly attack at Heaton Park synagogue, in which two people were killed, and on the eve of Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
Deputy assistant commissioner Vicki Evans, the senior national coordinator for Counter Terrorism Policing, described the charges as “extremely serious”. She said officers had disrupted “what we believe to have been a plot targeting the Jewish community in Manchester”.
Police guarded an address in Manchester after the two men were arrested on September 20 over an alleged terror plot targeting the city’s Jewish community as Yom Kippur began
The arrests took place on the eve of Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, amid heightened security concerns following last year’s deadly attack at Heaton Park synagogue
Ms Evans said there was no indication of an ongoing threat to the public, but acknowledged the arrests had caused “a great deal of concern to the Jewish community, as well as with the wider public”.
If confirmed, the alleged plot would mark the third terrorist targeting of the area in two years.
Terry Woods, deputy chief constable of Greater Manchester Police, said: “We know how concerning this news will be to Jewish communities in Greater Manchester, and beyond.
“We know this is particularly acute on the calendar anniversary of last year’s terrorist atrocity at the Heaton Park synagogue and during the Jewish High Holy Days.
“We continue to work hand in glove locally with community leaders, the Community Security Trust and our local policing teams, and nationally with Counter Terrorism Police London, which has been leading this investigation.
“Our ongoing and robust policing plans within Jewish communities will endure. The public can expect continued police visibility, with officers providing engagement and security.”
Marc Levy, chief executive of the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester, said the arrests came at an “incredibly concerning time” for British Jews, a year after Melvin Cravitz and Adrian Daulby were killed in the Heaton Park attack.
“We once again repeat that security can only ever deal with the symptoms,” Mr Levy said.
“One year on from the murder of Melvin and Adrian, the Government must redouble its efforts to tackle the root causes of the hatred and extremism espoused in places of worship and other community spaces, which continue to motivate people to target Jews.”
‘We cannot simply keep protecting our community from the next attack but must do much more to stop people being motivated to carry one out in the first place.’
The pair’s arrests came almost 12 months after knife-wielding Islamic State supporter Jihad Al-Shamie tried to force his way into the Heaton Park Synagogue on October 2 last year during Yom Kippur.
Al-Shamie – who was wearing a fake suicide belt and rang 999 during his attack saying ‘I have killed two Jews in the name of Islamic State’ – had already stabbed Mr Cravitz, 66.
As a police marksman fired his Glock pistol at the terrorist, an inquest earlier this month heard how one round fatally struck Mr Daulby, 53, who was bravely helping to barricade the doors.
That round also hit 39-year-old Yoni Finlay, who survived.
The year before a terrorist attack on the same Jewish community planned by Walid Saadaoui, 38, the former owner of an Italian restaurant in Great Yarmouth, and Amar Hussein, 52, a former Iraqi soldier who worked in an appliance store in Bolton, was foiled after they unwittingly bought assault rifles, handguns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition from an undercover officer.
Saadaoui was sentenced to life in jail with a minimum of 37 years and Hussein to life with a minimum of 26 years in February.
This is a breaking news story.