Police takes down 'Radical Islamic' group planning attack against Argentine Jewish community

Argentine police arrested seven people allegedly plotting a terrorist attack against the country's Jewish community. The people, who were located in the western province of Mendoza, held a large stash of firearms and knives.

The investigation began after a Jewish journalist in the province started getting threats, leading officials to find a messaging app channel with "anti-Jewish" and "anti-Christian" messages.

Some of the suspects were arrested near the border with Chile and at the Ezeiza International Airport, suggesting they were attempting to flee the country. "We'll remove every and all criminals trying to sow fear in the hearts of Argentines. They'll pay," said Security Minister Patricia Bullrich after the news surfaced.

The news come a little over a month after the Argentine government engaged in a diplomatic rift with Iran following a threat by a government mouthpiece over its stance regarding two decades-long attacks against the country's Jewish community and the current Israel-Hamas war.

Several high-ranking officials, among them the vice president, the cabinet chief and the ministers of security and defense, rejected a piece by the Tehran Times, which included passages such as "Tehran will not forget Buenos Aires' anti-Iranian policy" and "at the right time and position, it will impose its own game to the enemy and will make it feel sorry for its enmity towards Iran."

The piece criticized the Milei administration's decision to declare Hamas a terrorist organization and that it "reiterated its baseless assertion about Iran's involvement in the attacks to the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires and to the AMIA Argentine-Israeli Association."

The attacks took place in 1992 and 1994 and, until the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel, the latter was the largest against a Jewish community since the Holocaust. 22 people were killed and 242 injured in the attack against the Israeli embassy, while 85 died and over 300 were injured in the AMIA bombing. Argentina has the largest Jewish community in Latin America with about 250,000 people.

It is unclear whether the people arrested had any ties with Tehran. However, it is unlikely as they spread content from terrorist groups such as the Islamic State, which has conducted different attacks in Iran.

In April, Argentine police also announced the apprehension of a young man who "made explosive devices" aimed at using them in terrorist attacks. "He consumed jihadist content from ISIS and downloaded instructions to build explosives," police said.