Iran’s shadow war, out in the open

For years, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force’s preferred way of operating abroad was to stay invisible, which is the traditional logic of a foreign intelligence and covert-action service. In practice, that often means building layers between Tehran and the target, recruiting intermediaries, using criminal networks and compartmentalizing the operation.The person carrying out the attack may know very little, if anything, about who ultimately ordered it, while those giving the order remain several steps removed.The so-called “German Network”—three separate units going after dissidents and Jewish community figures across the European continent—illustrates the model: assassination cells linked to Quds Force Unit 840 using deniable operatives, criminal go-betweens and layers of separation designed to keep the Islamic Republic’s fingerprints off the outcome.That is what makes the attacks on Jewish targets across Europe since March particularly significant.A group calling itself Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya (or HAYI), publicly claimed responsibility for a series…

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