Police in Argentina arrest seven people who are said to have planned terrorist attacks on Jewish targets

BUENOS AIRES – Argentine police arrested seven people on Saturday in a raid on a suspected Islamist terrorist organization that was planning an attack on Jewish targets, including synagogues.

Argentine Jewish political umbrella organization DAIA said the raids followed a complaint to the Argentine federal police after a Jewish journalist in Mendoza faced a threat it did not detail. In a statement, the group said it had “spread anti-Christian and anti-Jewish language through Telegram and WhatsApp” and suggested the group had links to ISIS and the Taliban.

Local news in the province of western Argentina reported that the threats were made on the journalist's Facebook page in 2023, but did not name the journalist or detail the threats. According to the reports, the investigation was titled “Salafist Brothers,” a reference to the fundamentalist movement of Sunni Islam.

Patricia Bullrich, Argentina's security minister, tweeted footage of the raids, which were carried out on private homes, at the Cristo Redentor border crossing between Argentina and Chile and at Ezeiza International Airport in Buenos Aires. The footage showed firearms, knives and ammunition, as well as Islamic literature and materials.

“We will get rid of every single one of these criminals trying to spread fear in Argentina and they will pay for it,” Bullrich tweeted.

The arrests come shortly after the 30th anniversary of the bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, which killed 85 people and was, until October 7, the deadliest single attack on Jews since the Holocaust. Argentina's new president, Javier Milei, has vowed to take decisive action against Iran and its proxies, which are widely believed to be behind the AMIA bombing.

About 3,000 Jews live in Mendoza, a province of 1.9 million people. Argentina has the largest Jewish population in Latin America, with an estimated 180,000 people. Despite concerns in the Jewish community following the arrests, community activities continued uninterrupted over the weekend.