Four men plead guilty to arson attack on Jewish ambulances in London

​Four young British men ​pleaded guilty on Friday to ‌charges ​over an arson attack on community ambulances in London, the first of a spate of ‌incidents targeting the capital's Jewish community earlier this year.

Hamza Iqbal, 20, Rehan Khan, 19, Judex Atshatshi, 18, and Saif Ali, 18, appeared at ‌London's Old Bailey court and admitted a charge of destroying or ‌damaging property being reckless as to whether life would be endangered. The charges relate to the torching of four ambulances belonging to Jewish volunteer emergency service Hatzola ⁠on March 23 ​while they ⁠were parked near a synagogue, which prosecutors said cost around £1 million ($1.36 million) in total.

Hatzola ⁠is a not-for-profit volunteer emergency service that works alongside Britain's National Health ​Service and primarily serves the Orthodox Jewish community. Pro-Iranian group Harakat Ashab ⁠al-Yamin al-Islamiyya (HAYI)claimed responsibility for the ambulance attack, which was followed by several other ⁠arson ​incidents in London

A synagogue and a former synagogue were targeted, as was Persian-language media organisation Iran International and a memorial wall ⁠dedicated to people killed in Iran. British police said at the time ⁠that they ⁠were investigating possible Iranian links to those arson attacks, with HAYI also having claimed responsibility for some of ‌them.

($1 = 0.7363 ‌pounds)