UK synagogue attacker claimed allegiance to Islamic State in call to police

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LONDON (Reuters) -The man whose attack on a synagogue in northern England last week resulted in the deaths of two Jewish worshippers phoned police to say he was acting for Islamic State, counter-terrorism police said on Wednesday.

Jihad Al-Shamie, a 35-year-old British citizen of Syrian descent, made the call after driving a car into pedestrians and attacking people with a knife at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in the Crumpsall district, police said.

Armed officers shot dead Al-Shamie, who had appeared to be wearing an explosive belt, at the scene, and police later said they had also accidentally shot one of the two victims killed in the attack.

“We can confirm that, in the initial stages of the attack … a call was made by the attacker to police claiming to pledge allegiance to the so-called Islamic State,” a spokesperson for Counter Terrorism Policing North West said.

“We are continuing to investigate the full circumstances and motivation behind what happened. The investigation is continuing at pace.”

Last Thursday’s attack, in which Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66, were killed took place during Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.

Last week, the head of Britain’s Counter Terrorism Policing, Laurence Taylor, said authorities believed Al-Shamie might have been influenced by extreme Islamist ideology, but establishing full details would likely take time.

The attacker was not previously known to counter terrorism police nor do detectives believe he had been referred to the country’s counter-radicalisation scheme, Prevent. However, he did have a criminal history and had recently been arrested for rape before being released on bail, Taylor said.

In a statement on Facebook, Shamie’s family said they were in “profound shock” and wanted to distance themselves from what they called his “heinous act”.

Britain, like other European countries and the United States, has recorded a sharp rise in antisemitic incidents in the nearly two years since the Gaza conflict began.

Last year was the second worst on record for such incidents, surpassed only by 2023, according to the Community Security Trust, which provides security to Jewish organisations across Britain. It recorded more than 3,500 incidents in 2024.

(Reporting by Michael Holden and Sam Tabahriti; editing by William James)