Tuesday, October 15, 2013

'Major London terror plot' foiled by police in dramatic armed raids across the capital


From the London Evening Standard:
Police smashed a suspected Islamist terror plot to attack London after four men were held by heavily-armed officers. The Met acted on intelligence that the men may have had access to firearms, prompting fears of an attack similar to the Kenyan mall atrocity. 
Two men aged 25 were arrested in a “hard stop” in Mansell Street near Tower Bridge last night after officers blew out the tyres of their car with shotgun rounds and rammed the vehicle. One man, aged 29, was held at his home in Peckham after a stake-out by undercover officers. 
Police also seized a 28-year-old man outside an Iranian restaurant in Westbourne Grove. Around eight police cars surrounded the Alounak restaurant as the suspect came out. 
Toby Lewis, 26, a waiter at Nando’s in Westbourne Grove, said: “One guy had been pushed against the wall of Planet Organic and you just had cops all around him, holding him there. They were shouting at him. No one in the restaurant was allowed to come for about an hour.” 
A neighbour said: “A young guy who looked Indian was taken away.” Another said: “We are very shocked by all this. There were undercover police parked outside then a van came and they piled in. It is all quite scary.” 
The men are understood to have been under surveillance by police and MI5 for some time. Senior officers ordered the simultaneous arrests in the interests of public safety. The suspects are understood to be different nationalities, though at least one is British. They were held in co-ordinated raids in what the Met described as a “pre-planned, intelligence led operation.” 
They were being questioned at a south London police station today on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism. Officers were searching six addresses across London as well as two cars linked to the suspects. 
The threat of an attack in London by several gunmen such as in Mumbai in 2008 or Nairobi last month is the biggest fear of anti-terror chiefs. Last week Andrew Parker, the director general of MI5, warned that Islamist extremists in the UK see the British public as a legitimate target for attacks. 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

As of the latest ‘profiling’ available in the public domain so far the alleged identity of four of the six(?) enrichers is as follows: all are all purported to be ‘British Nationals’ (oxymoron, ignore), one of Turkish origin, one of Algerian, one of Azerbaijani and one of (inevitably) Pakistani ‘origin’ – all of the usual suspects who, of course, will “…have nothing to do with Islam”.

(There, now, isn’t that considerate of me? I have just relieved our revered prime Minister, “…it has nothing to do with Islam” David Cameron, from the necessity of making a complete and utter fool of himself yet again.)

Seneca III

Pastorius said...

That is kind of you.

Here, I'll see your kindness and raise you one.

And, even if it did have something to do with Islam, they were only attempting, in their own way, to say "Praise the Lord."