Breaking: Shots Fired at U.S. Consulate in Toronto as Iran War Fuels Fears of Proxy or Sleeper-Cell Retaliation

TORONTO — Police responded at 5:29 a.m. Tuesday to reports that someone fired shots at the American Consulate at University Avenue and Queen Street West in the heart of Toronto, in an incident that comes as Western security agencies confront growing fears that the Iran war is triggering retaliatory violence far beyond the Middle East.

In a public statement posted by Toronto Police Operations, police said they had located evidence of a firearm discharge, that no injuries were reported, and that officers remained on scene investigating. CityNews reported damage to a consulate door and about 10 shell casings outside the building.

On Monday, ABC News reported that a federal alert sent to law enforcement agencies said the United States had intercepted encrypted communications believed to have originated in Iran that may serve as “an operational trigger” for “sleeper assets” outside the country.

According to ABC, the alert cited “preliminary signals analysis” of a transmission “likely of Iranian origin” relayed across multiple countries shortly after the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the Feb. 28 U.S.-Israeli strike.

ABC further reported that the encoded transmission appeared intended for “clandestine recipients” holding the proper encryption key, potentially to convey instructions to “covert operatives or sleeper assets” without using internet or cellular networks.

That warning aligns with a Department of Homeland Security threat assessment reviewed by Reuters, which said Iran and its proxies “probably” pose a persistent threat of targeted attacks in the Homeland, even though a large-scale physical attack is considered unlikely.

In Toronto, the consulate incident follows a string of shootings that has deepened fears of ideologically driven or conflict-linked violence.

The city has seen multiple Jewish institutions struck by gunfire in recent days, alongside a separate shooting at a boxing gym reportedly tied to an Iranian-Canadian critic of Tehran. Authorities have not publicly connected those incidents to the consulate shooting, but the pattern has heightened concern across the city.

Reflecting that alarm, Canadian newspaper columnist Brian Lilley wrote on X: “This is in the heart of Toronto. I know people who work in that [Consulate] building. Many of them are non-partisan civil servants who may not agree with this war. Political violence in Toronto has been normalized.”

The pattern is not confined to Canada. In Oslo, Reuters reported that a loud explosion struck the U.S. embassy early Sunday, causing minor damage but no injuries, in what Norwegian police said may have been a deliberate attack linked to the crisis in the Middle East. Reuters quoted Oslo police saying one hypothesis was terrorism, while other possibilities were also being explored. Investigators said they were searching for one or several perpetrators.