May 22, 2013
NewsRescue– The man who killed the soldier said,
“I apologize that women had to witness this today, but in our land, women have to see the same. You people will never be safe, REMOVE YOUR GOVERNMENT, they don’t care about you.”
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Update: Intervention Blowback Questioned
Hundreds of Britons are known to have gone to Syria over the last two years to support the rebellion against Bashar al-Assad. The Syrian conflict is now the “jihadist destination of choice”, according to Whitehall officials. Britons are also known to have been involved with the al-Nusra front, which is heavily infused with al-Qaida elements from Iraq and has been designated a terrorist group by the US.
Some of those people going abroad from the UK were already known to MI5 and MI6; some have now returned home. Many others will have come and gone without investigators knowing.
The same thing has happened in Somalia, where a smaller number of Britons have been in recent years, to support the al-Qaida affiliate al-Shabaab.
“What they do when they come back here is more worrying to us than what they do when they are out there,” is how one official put it.
Even if those responsible for the Woolwich attack had not been abroad, they could have been motivated closer to home or online.
Security officials have highlighted the dangers posed by the al-Qaida online magazine, Inspire, which is constantly urging its readers to undertake attacks, rather than wait for training or orders from above. Read more…
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Story:
BBC-A man has died and two are injured after police responded to a reported machete attack in south-east London.
The government is reported to be treating the attack as a suspected terrorist incident and the prime minister said it was “truly shocking”.
Eyewitnesses said a man was assaulted in a Woolwich street by two individuals who were later shot by officers.
Local MP Nick Raynsford said the dead man was a soldier at Woolwich barracks but this has not been confirmed.
Home Secretary Theresa May has summoned a meeting of the government’s emergency response committee Cobra to assess the incident.
It is understood she has also requested updates from the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Bernard Hogan-Howe, and the head of MI5.
BBC political editor Nick Robinson said the police view is that the the attack may have been filmed and footage may exist.
People carrying out the attack were of Muslim appearance and cries of God is Great or Allahu Akbar were heard, said our political editor.
London Ambulance Service confirmed one man had been found dead at the scene.
It said two men had been taken to hospital, one in a serious condition.
One of the men was airlifted from the scene, and another was taken away by road ambulance
A spokesperson said an air ambulance and four crews had attended the scene.
Witnesses reported by the Press Association said two people had been shot after armed police were called to an incident in which a man was attacked with a machete-style knife.
One witness, identified only as James, said two men had attacked another man, aged about 20, who was wearing a T-shirt of military charity Help for Heroes.
“These two guys were crazed. They were just animals. They dragged him from the pavement and dumped his body in the middle of the road and left his body there,” he told LBC radio.
He said after the “horrendous” attack, the two men, who were also in their 20s, stood around, waving knives and a gun, and asked people to take pictures of them “as if they wanted to be on TV or something”.
“They were oblivious to anything, they were more worried about having their photo taken, running up and down the road,” he said.
Thomas, a witness who contacted the BBC, said: “I got there minutes after it happened because you could hear gunshots from Woolwich High Street.
“Basically two men carried out an axe attack on a young army cadet walking along the street, by the looks of things the police responded and then shot them in front of the public, at the same time I couldn’t really tell if the cadet was fatally or not hurt as police were crowded around him.”
Meanwhile, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) confirmed it had been informed.
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