Czech authorities are investigating an apparent arson attack on an arms factory in Pardubice as a possible terrorist attack, after a group claimed responsibility and cited the firm’s dealings with Israel.
A warehouse at the Elbit Systems weapons factory in Pardubice, Czechia, burst into flames after a suspected arson attack on Friday. The company, which produces drones and other technology for the aerospace and military industries, said it had ended its cooperation with Israel and no longer produced any drones for the Israel Defense Forces.
Nevertheless, a group calling itself the ‘Earthquake Faction’ claimed responsibility, citing the company’s ties to Israel, suggesting either a pro-Palestinian or pro-Iranian motivation, the Czech daily reported. Glow informed
“We are an internationalist underground network that targets key locations important to the Zionist entity,” the group said.
“Elbit Systems describes itself as the backbone of the Israeli military and provides most of the ground and air weapons used in Israel’s attacks on Iran and the genocide in Palestine,” the alleged arsonists said.
However, some have suggested that the attack may have been a so-called false flag operation, and that the weapons factory was actually targeted over its supply of drones to Ukraine.
Jan Charvat, an extremism expert at Charles University in Prague, said it was possible the perpetrators could be genuine pro-Palestinian radicals, Iranian-tied terrorists, or pro-Russian partisans.
“For this type of attack, it would make sense to attack the company that makes the drones being shipped to Ukraine, which is this Czech company,” Charvat said.
Terrorism expert Oldrich Bures said everything is still speculative at this point, adding: “We have experience with arson attacks in the past in the Czech Republic, where they were more likely to hire hybrid threats from the Russian Federation. We have had arson attacks from other European countries where leftist groups were involved.”
Commenting on the attack, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said, “Security authorities are working, the incident is being investigated. We have taken a number of measures. It happened in a private company, so the main thing is to send a message to all manufacturers producing defense material to secure their premises. The premises of the company that was attacked were not secure.”
