Canadian police say a sophisticated international network used encrypted messaging apps to recruit local young people in Toronto to carry out shootings at Jewish institutions, religious sites, and the U.S. consulate, in exchange for money. Toronto police chief Myron Demkiw said the hired youths were required to film the attack scenes live or immediately afterward, and the photos and videos were then sent to their handlers as proof of completion and for propaganda use. He said, “The clear goal of whoever is behind this network is to instill fear and terror in the Jewish community in the city.”
Authorities have not publicly named Iran as responsible, but AP and The Guardian reported that the broader investigation is being run internationally with cooperation from other agencies, including the FBI. Last week, a major police raid on one of the network’s safe houses turned deadly when Toronto officer Mark Pizzuto, 43, was killed in a gunfight. Several suspects were charged, but police say the operation is far from over and a large manhunt continues for 19-year-old Zh Gabi, described as armed and extremely dangerous, over her alleged role in the shooting at the U.S. mission.
The attack on the U.S. consulate became the link between the Canadian case and a wider U.S. terrorism investigation. American court filings identify Mohammad Baker Saad Dawood al-Saadi, an Iraqi national and senior commander in the terrorist group Kataib Hezbollah, as the man behind the operation. Prosecutors say he works closely with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and ran a well-funded international network aimed at physically harming Jewish, Israeli and American targets worldwide.
The FBI says al-Saadi is tied not only to the two Canadian shootings, at the consulate and a synagogue, but also to a series of attacks and arson incidents against Jewish targets in Europe. He was recently arrested in Turkey in a joint operation and extradited to the United States. In a heated hearing in Manhattan, he denied the charges and shouted at judges that the situation was a “state of war.” Jewish community leaders in Toronto say the case confirms their months-long warnings about rising antisemitic shootings and arson were part of a coordinated global terror campaign, not isolated local incidents.
