IS claims responsibility for London terror attack

LONDON — Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility yesterday for the deadly attack outside the British Parliament, as Prime Minister Theresa May described the assailant as a British-born man whom the country’s domestic intelligence agency had investigated for connections to violent extremism.

The London police later identified him as Khalid Masood, 52, who had a long criminal history but no terrorism convictions. He had been living recently around Birmingham, England, where the vehicle used in the attack was rented.

Addressing lawmakers in Parliament, which only a day earlier had been on lockdown, Mrs May said the attacker was “a peripheral figure” who had been examined by MI5, Britain’s domestic counterintelligence agency, but who had not been “part of the current intelligence picture”. She said “there was no prior evidence of his intent or of the plot” and that “our working assumption is that the attacker was inspired by Islamist ideology”.

The authorities raided six properties across the country yesterday, detaining eight people in London and Birmingham, as they pressed ahead with a fast-moving investigation.

Officials emphasised that they believed the assailant had acted alone and that they did not expect any further attacks.

Mrs May said the nation’s threat level would remain “severe”, meaning that an attack was likely, and not raised to “critical”, signalling an imminent attack. “Yesterday, an act of terrorism tried to silence our democracy,” she said. “We are not afraid and our resolve will never waver in the face of terrorism.”

Barely an hour after she finished speaking, IS issued a statement declaring that the attacker was a “soldier” who “carried out the operation in response to appeals” to fight Western powers involved in military operations in the Middle East. IS has been quick to claim other terror attacks in the past.

World leaders condemned the attack, which killed four persons and injured over 30. The police had lowered the death toll from five to four, including Masood. He had driven his vehicle into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge and then fatally stabbed a police constable, Keith Palmer, 48, before being shot dead by the police.

A minute’s silence was held in Parliament and in front of police headquarters at New Scotland Yard at 0933 GMT (5.33pm, Singapore time) — 933 was the shoulder number on Palmer’s uniform. Mr Mark Rowley, the police assistant commissioner, said a large crime scene remained near Parliament, and that the police would be sifting through CCTV footage as well as video evidence taken by witnesses. The investigation, he said, was focused on the assailant’s motive, identifying his associates, and the extent to which the attack was premeditated.

Masood was born on Dec 25, 1964, in Kent, in south-eastern England.

“Masood was not the subject of any current investigations and there was no prior intelligence about his intent to mount a terrorist attack,” the London police said. However, he had a record of convictions, stretching from 1983 to 2003, for assault, weapons possession and violations of public order.

Londoners returned to work yesterday, signalling to those responsible that the attack would not crush their spirits. Parliament began with a debate on trade policy before Mrs May spoke.

Among those headed to work yesterday was 39-year-old Michael Torrance, a House of Lords official. He said the full magnitude of the attack had not yet sunk in. “Everyone was in various states of shock.”

After the recent bloody attacks in Brussels and Paris, many Londoners shared a sense of inevitability that the British capital could be next. They said that expectation, combined with British mettle conditioned over centuries of war, terrorism and other challenges, had helped people stay calm.

“We do have a tendency to just get on with it,” said event planner Meredith O’Shaughnessy, 38. “It takes a lot to shake a Londoner.” AGENCIES