London Bridge terror attack

Twelve people have been arrested after the London terror attack which left seven people dead and 48 injured. The arrests in Barking, east London, followed a raid at a flat belonging to one of the three attackers. A van hit pedestrians on London Bridge at 21:58 BST on Saturday. Three men then got out and stabbed people in nearby Borough Market.

On 4 June 2017, it was claimed that one of the London Bridge terrorists tried to recruit children to join Islamic State and was twice reported to police over his extremist views. The Pakistani-born radical, who grew up in Britain, was named by relatives as one of three men who carried out a car and knife rampage in London on Saturday night; the third Islamist attack on British soil in two and a half months.

Irish police assisting investigation

It’s found that one of the London attackers had a connection to Ireland and Irish authorities are assisting the Metropolitan Police in their investigation into the London attack. When asked about media reports that one of the attackers was in possession of an Irish ID card, the Metropolitan Police and Irish Police refused to confirm or deny.

Recent attacks in the UK and elsewhere are partly an attempt by ISIS to divert attention from the group's loss of territory in the Middle East and North Africa. ISIS still have control over Raqqa, their de facto capital in Syria... that's where attacks have been planned and where all the foreign fighters have been congregating.

Analysis

In the latest attack, the three terrorists used a rented white van to ram into pedestrians on London Bridge at up to 50mph. They attacked indiscriminately, shouting: “This is for Allah!” Last night 36 people were in hospital of whom 21 were critical. It is feared that the death toll will rise.

• Armed police launched raids in Barking, east London, as they hunted alleged accomplices. A 38-year-old woman was arrested & further 11 people, including six women        aged from 19 to 60, were held. A 55-year-old man has since been released without charge.

• The Prime Minister said that Thursday’s election would go ahead but a vast deployment of police is expected.

• Armed officers brought the incident to a close within eight minutes by shooting dead all three terrorists. A member of the public was shot in the head but their condition is    not believed to be life-threatening.

Organisation used an encrypted messaging channel to call on extremists to target markets and run over civilian’s hours before the attack. A poster in Arabic and English featured a handgun, a knife, and a lorry, reading “gain benefit from Ramadan”, the holy month that began on May 26, and “kill civilians of the crusaders, run over them by vehicles”. Similar calls to arms were posted on YouTube. The terrorist threat level remains at severe.

Assessment

The use of such bombs are rare, such as at Manchester Arena, are rarer because plotters need to have the technical skills for such an appalling attack - but attacking people with cars and knives is far easier and has long been encouraged by so-called Islamic State and other jihadists. The aim of the three attackers last night is copiously clear - not only did they want to kill, but they wanted to lose their own lives. They would've known full well that attacking people in the street would draw armed police in their direction and the fake bomb belts they were wearing would, in their own warped minds, hasten their demise.