U.K. Police Arrest Men on Suspicion of Spying for Iran

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Stamer during a news conference in London, England, on March 5, 2026. Credit - Tolga Akmen—Getty Images

Four men were arrested early Friday morning on suspicion of conducting surveillance of locations and individuals linked to the Jewish community in London to assist Iran.

The Metropolitan Police said the men, aged between 22 to 55, were "arrested as part of a Counter Terrorism Policing investigation" under the National Security Act.

"The men were arrested on suspicion of assisting a foreign intelligence service, contrary to section 3 of the National Security Act, 2023. The country to which the investigation relates is Iran," astatementconfirmed.

Detectives arrested the men shortly after 1 a.m., local time, at addresses in the London boroughs of Barnet, Harrow, and Watford as part of what police described as a "pre-planned operation." One of the men is an Iranian national; the other three are dual British-Iranian nationals.

Six additional men were arrested at the same location in Harrow, five on suspicion of assisting an offender and one on suspicion of assaulting a police officer.

All of the men in question have been taken into police custody.

Commander Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, said the arrests "are part of a long-running investigation and part of our ongoing work to disrupt malign activity where we suspect it."

Acknowledging that the Jewish community, in particular, may be concerned, she urged the public to "remain vigilant" and contact the authorities if they witness or hear anything alarming.

British Home Secretary Shabana Mahmoodthankedpolice and security services following the arrests.

She said the authorities "won't hesitate to take action to counter any threat to the U.K." and have the "government's full support as they carry out their vital work."

Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy declined to comment directly on the arrests, but said during aninterviewthat "Iran is the biggest state sponsor of terrorism globally and sadly, that is in effect in our own society as well. Our intelligence services and counter-terrorism police have thwarted lots of action over the last few years."

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Meanwhile, the U.K.-based charity Campaign Against Antisemitism expressed gratitude over the arrests, but said the threat from Iran is "still not being taken seriously by the Government" andarguedthat the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) should be proscribed as a terrorist organization in the U.K.

The U.K. arrests come amid the widening of the Iran war, which has engulfed several countries and territories across the world after the U.S. and Israel launched strikes against Iran last weekend which resulted in the death of IranianSupreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iran's retaliatory strikes have since targeted Gulf nations and also aBritish airbasein Cyprus.

While the U.K. refused to get involved in the initial U.S.-Israeli led strikes on Iran, it has since allowed the U.S. to use British bases and has launched defensive measures in a bid to protect U.K. citizens and allies against Iranian retaliation.

The government has also launched an extensiveoperationto bring home British citizens that are currently stranded in the Middle East.

The rise of antisemitic incidents in the U.K.

U.K.-based charity Community Security Trust (CST), which aims to "protect British Jews from terrorism and antisemitism,"recorded3,700 instances of anti-Jewish hate reported over the course of 2025, a 4% rise from the 3,556 incidents logged in 2024.

Only in 2023 has CST recorded more, when 4,298 cases of antisemitism were reported following a spike in incidents amid the immediate aftermath of October 7.

There were over 293,000 Jewish people living in the United Kingdom when the last comprehensivenational censuswas conducted in March 2021.

Cases of antisemitism and hate crimes towards Jewish Americans have also surged in recent years.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reported that in the three months following the start of the Israel-Hamas war,antisemitic incidents in the U.S. skyrocketed by 361%.

According to the State of Antisemitism in America 2025report, 91% of American Jews said they feel less safe as a Jewish person in the United States due to violent incidents including the arson attack on aJewish Governor's home, the firebombing of Jewish people inBoulder, and themurdersat the Capital Jewish Museum.

Contact usatletters@time.com.

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U.K. Police Arrest Men on Suspicion of Spying for Iran

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Stamer during a news conference in London, England, on March 5, 2026. Credit - Tolga Akmen—Getty...

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Kurdish Iranian dissidents in Iraq deny attack plans but say they would join a US invasion of Iran

IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — Officials with one of the armedKurdishIranian dissident groups based in northern Iraq told The Associated Press that they are not planning an imminent cross-border attack on Iran but would join a ground invasion if the U.S. were to launch one.

Iraq Iran Kurds

The comments appeared to be aimed at reassuring Iraqi Kurdish officials, who have said they do not want attacks to be launched against Iran from their territory, fearing that they will be further dragged into the war in the Middle East sparked by the U.S. and Israel's strikes on Iran.

In the event of a U.S. ground operation, "then we would enter alongside the coalition forces," said Khalil Nadiri, an official with the Kurdistan Freedom Party PAK, in an interview with the AP Thursday. But he said, "The Kurds must not place themselves as the spearhead of the attack."

He added that his group also has armed members already present inside of Iran and that they would not necessarily require cross-border support if they were to stage an uprising.

Nadiri said the Kurdish groups have been in contact with the U.S. and Israel but denied having received any material aid from them.

The comments came after Kurdish officials said earlier this week that the Kurdish Iranian dissident groups based in northern Iraq are preparing for a potentialcross-bordermilitary operationin Iran, and the U.S. had asked Iraqi Kurds to support them

Rebaz Sharifi, a military commander with the PAK, said it would be "a very positive development" if the U.S. and its allies were to arm the Kurdish groups, but also denied that they have received any such support so far.

Sharifi said he expects that at some point, U.S. President Donald Trump "might want the peshmerga forces of Eastern Kurdistan to participate in the conflict during a ground invasion" and "if it reaches that point, we, for our part, would be pleased with it."

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However, the two officials sought to dispel the fears of Iraqi Kurdish officials that Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdish region would be used as a launching pad.

Peshawa Hawramani, spokesperson for the Kurdistan Regional Government, said in a statement earlier this week that "allegations claiming that we are part of a plan to arm and send Kurdish opposition parties into Iranian territory are completely unfounded" and that the Iraqi Kurdish parties do not want to "expand the war and tensions in the region."

Already Iran and allied Iraqi militias have launched dozens of missiles and drone attacks into northern Iraq, targeting the U.S. bases and consulate in Irbil as well as bases of the Iranian Kurdish dissident groups.

Sharifi said PAK's bases have been attacked twice with ballistic missiles and four times with drones since the start of the war, killing one of their fighters and wounding three others.

Nadiri said that "since the (Iraqi) Kurdistan region has adopted a policy of not becoming a part of this conflict and because we do not want to disrupt the stability and security here and we respect the laws of this region, consequently, the environment has not yet been established for us to move our forces back into Eastern Kurdistan."

He was using the term used by Kurdish groups to refer to the Kurdish region of Iran.

The potential military involvement of the Kurds has raised tensions with other Iranian opposition groups - notably the faction led by the former shah's son, Reza Pahlavi, who has accused the Kurds of being separatists aiming to carve up Iran.

Sharifi said that his group's "ultimate goal is the statehood of the Kurds in all four regions and the reunification of Kurdistan," referring to the Kurdish areas that are currently split among Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria.

Nadiri said that a confederal system could be a "viable solution" that would allow the Kurdish area to remain part of Iran while maintaining its "own sovereignty, identity, and unique characteristics."

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Kurdish Iranian dissidents in Iraq deny attack plans but say they would join a US invasion of Iran

IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — Officials with one of the armedKurdishIranian dissident groups based in northern Iraq told The Associa...

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Exclusive-US investigation points to likely US responsibility in Iran school strike, sources say

(This March 5 story has been republished to fix an image caption, with no changes to text)

A satellite image, annotated by Reuters, shows the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls' school and other structures damaged after being struck, amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Minab

By Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali

March 5 (Reuters) - U.S. military investigators believe it is likely that U.S. forces were responsible for an apparent strike on an Iranian girls' school that killed scores of ‌children on Saturday but have not yet reached a final conclusion or completed their investigation, two U.S. officials told Reuters.

Reuters was unable to determine more details ‌about the investigation, including what evidence contributed to the tentative assessment, what type of munition was used, who was responsible or why the U.S. might have struck the school.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday acknowledged the ​U.S. military was investigating the incident.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military matters, did not rule out the possibility that new evidence could emerge that absolves the U.S. of responsibility and points to another responsible party in the incident.

Reuters could not determine how much longer the investigation would last or what evidence U.S. investigators are seeking before the assessment can be completed.

The girls' school in Minab, in southern Iran, was hit on Saturday during the first day of U.S. and Israeli attacks on the country. Iran's ambassador to the ‌U.N. in Geneva, Ali Bahreini, said the strike killed 150 students. ⁠Reuters could not independently confirm the death toll.

According to archived copies of the school's official website, the school is adjacent to a compound operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the military force that reports to Iran's supreme leader.

The Pentagon referred questions from Reuters to the U.S. ⁠military's Central Command, whose spokesperson, Captain Timothy Hawkins, said: "It would be inappropriate to comment given the incident is under investigation."

The White House did not directly comment on the investigation, but press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to Reuters, "While the Department of War is currently investigating this matter, the Iranian regime targets civilians and children, not the United States of America."

Asked about the incident ​during ​a news briefing on Wednesday, Hegseth said: "We're investigating that. We, of course, never target civilian targets. But ​we're taking a look and investigating that."

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U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio ‌told reporters on Monday that the United States would not deliberately target a school.

"The Department of War would be investigating that if that was our strike, and I would refer your question to them," Rubio said.

SATELLITE IMAGES SUGGEST STRIKES FROM AIR

Israeli and U.S. forces have until now divided their attacks in Iran both geographically and by target type, a senior Israeli official and a source with direct knowledge of the joint planning said. While Israel was striking missile launch sites in western Iran, the United States was attacking such targets, as well as naval ones, in the south.

Reuters shared satellite imagery and visuals of the aftermath of the Minab attack with N.R. Jenzen-Jones, director of Armament Research Services, a munitions ‌research consultancy.

"Taken together, the satellite imagery and available videos suggest the school and adjacent IRGC compound were ​hit by multiple simultaneous or near-simultaneous strikes with explosive munitions, most likely air-delivered types," Jenzen-Jones wrote in an ​email.

He cautioned that it is difficult to be definitive about the type of ​munitions used in the ongoing conflict and said that to determine responsibility investigators would generally attempt to review munition remnants.

The U.N. human rights ‌office, without saying who it believed was responsible for the strike, called ​on Tuesday for an investigation.

"The onus is on ​the forces that carried out the attack to investigate it," U.N. human rights office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told a press briefing in Geneva.

Images of the girls' funeral on Tuesday were shown on Iranian state television. Their small coffins were draped with Iranian flags and passed from a truck across a large crowd towards the grave ​site.

Deliberately attacking a school or hospital or any other civilian ‌structure would likely be a war crime under international humanitarian law.

If a U.S. role were to be confirmed, the strike would rank among the worst ​cases of civilian casualties in decades of U.S. conflicts in the Middle East.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali; Additional reporting by Maayan Lubell in ​Jerusalem and James Pearson in London; Editing by Craig Timberg, Don Durfee and Daniel Wallis)

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09:34

Exclusive-US investigation points to likely US responsibility in Iran school strike, sources say

(This March 5 story has been republished to fix an image caption, with no changes to text) A satellite image...

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Penguins' Malkin given major penalty for slashing Sabres defenseman Dahlin

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Pittsburgh Penguins Evgeni Malkin was given a major penalty for slashing Buffalo Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin early in the second period of a 5-1 loss Thursday night.

Malkin was ejected from the game with the major penalty, and both players were called for cross-checking at 38 seconds of the period.

Penguins coach Dan Muse didn't comment on Malkin's penalty after the game.

"He's obviously a catalyst for our team," said Bryan Rust, who scored Pittsburgh's only goal. "He drives a lot of play and creates a lot of offense. He's an unbelievable player, so it's unfortunate."

Josh Norris scored on the power play at 4:10 to give the Sabres a 2-1 lead. Alex Tuch added a short-handed goal at 6:18, and Owen Power made it 4-1 with 9:30 to go in the period.

The 39-year-old Malkin has been suspended twice in his NHL career, one game for high-sticking Philadelphia's Michael Raffl in February 2019, and four games in April 2022 for cross-checking Nashville's Mark Borowiecki.

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"Hopefully, he served his time (Thursday) and that's it," defenseman Erik Karlsson said. "He's a big part of this team. He's been playing great hockey and gives us a different dimension to our offensive game."

Malkin's 10-game home points streak ended Thursday. He has 13 goals and 47 points in 46 games.

Pittsburgh is already without captain Sidney Crosby for a minimum of four weeks because of a lower-body injury.

"I think we've shown throughout the year that we're a pretty deep team," Karlsson said. "We miss both of those guys, but it's nothing that we haven't done before."

AP NHL:https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

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Penguins' Malkin given major penalty for slashing Sabres defenseman Dahlin

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Pittsburgh Penguins Evgeni Malkin was given a major penalty for slashing Buffalo Sabres defenseman Rasm...

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Haitian man dies in ICE custody after family says tooth infection went untreated

Scripps News is gathering details about the death of another immigrant in ICE custody — a 56-year-old Haitian man who died after suffering from a tooth infection. His family is blaming a lack of medical care.

Emmanuel Damas had been detained since September at a private, for-profit ICE facility in Florence, Arizona. His brother, Presly Nelson, told the Scripps News Group in Phoenix that Damas had been suffering for weeks from an infected tooth.

IN RELATED NEWS |ICE now says immigrant detainee died after 'spontaneous use of force'

Nelson said medical staff gave Damas ibuprofen rather than sending him to a dentist. Days later, Damas was rushed to the hospital, where his condition deteriorated. The family said the infection had spread, and he was placed on a ventilator before he ultimately died.

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"The nurse said 'yeah, most likely he had a tooth infection and he did not get the proper attention,'" Nelson said. "That had spread to his neck then to his lungs and he went septic."

"All you have to do is get a driver and a security guard or two security guards to actually take him to a dentist," Presly added, saying his brother's death was preventable.

RELATED STORY |ICE contracts fuel revenue surge for owners of for-profit immigration detention centers

The family is now demanding an investigation. The Department of Homeland Security has not immediately responded to questions about this case.

Scripps News' yearlong ICE Inc. investigative series has found that as ICE detains more undocumented immigrants, there has been a rise in complaints about inadequate health care and an increase in deaths of migrants in ICE custody. Clickhereto learn more.

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Haitian man dies in ICE custody after family says tooth infection went untreated

Scripps News is gathering details about the death of another immigrant in ICE custody — a 56-year-old Haitian man who die...

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