Prosecutor says 2 Iranian men scouted a UK synagogue for a chlorine bomb plot

Two Iranian men, Salam Ahmadyan, 36, and Rahman Salehi, 34, have been charged with terror offenses over an alleged plot to attack the Jewish community in Manchester. According to prosecutors, the duo conducted surveillance of the Heaton Park Congregation Synagogue in Manchester, which was the site of a deadly attack on Yom Kippur, October 2, 2025, that killed two people, Melvin Cravitz, 66, and Adrian Daulby, 53.

The men are accused of engaging in conduct in preparation for terrorist acts and are believed to have been in contact with a third person, likely in Iran, who directed and coordinated the planned attack. Prosecutors allege that Ahmadyan and Salehi researched attacking the synagogue and the Jewish Museum in nearby Cheetham Hill as part of a plot to bomb them with a homemade chlorine bomb.

The suspects were arrested on September 20 and appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Saturday, where they were ordered to be held until an October 23 appearance at the Central Criminal Court in London.

Brief written by urgent.news from PBS NewsHour, CityNews, Egypt Independent, Discovered — 4 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.