Twelve hired shootings in Toronto and the Islamic Republic's trail

Twelve politically motivated shootings in Toronto, from synagogues and a school to businesses and the US consulate downtown, were the work of hired gunmen most likely paid by the Islamic Republic. That is the finding of an investigation published by Canada's CBC, which pieced together the common pattern of the attacks.

No one was hurt in any of the attacks, but they followed the same method: shots fired in the early hours of the morning, from a stolen car with a handgun, often with the scene filmed on a mobile phone. Toronto police had said earlier that the shooters are recruited through encrypted messaging apps and must film the attack to get paid. Toronto police chief Myron Demkiw had called the pattern "criminals for hire".

Kataib Hezbollah named in a US indictment

In May, US authorities arrested Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, a member of Iraq's Kataib Hezbollah, a militia aligned with the Islamic Republic, on charges of directing attacks in Europe. According to prosecutors, he had boasted of carrying out two attacks in Toronto: a shooting at a synagogue and one at the US consulate. US prosecutors regard a group called "Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya", which claimed attacks including the arson of a synagogue in London, as a front for Kataib Hezbollah.

Canada's Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre had also judged it a "realistic possibility", in a top-secret report dated 2 April 2026 that was later partly released, that the Islamic Republic had used local criminal networks to target Canada's Jewish community. Toronto police officer Mark Pinizzotto was shot dead while searching a residential building during this same investigation, which covers more than 24 shootings.

The Canadian government's position

The Canadian government has not yet formally attributed the case to the Islamic Republic. On 10 June, Canada and its allies condemned the Islamic Republic's "lethal plots" on Western soil in a joint statement that named the IRGC Intelligence Organisation, the Quds Force and the Ministry of Intelligence. Canada has had no diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic since 2012, and Foreign Minister Anita Anand has said there are no plans to restore them.

The case joins others opened in European courts in recent months: from Mostafa Sepahvand's admission in a London court about the money he was promised for harming a journalist, to the Spanish prosecutors' indictment that attributes the assassination attempt on Alejo Vidal-Quadras to the Islamic Republic's intelligence apparatus.

The method of the Toronto attacks matches the pattern US prosecutors attribute to militias allied with the Islamic Republic.