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Britain calls emergency meeting after man killed in London
Police officers guard a cordon set up around a crime scene where one man was killed was killed in Woolwich, southeast London May 22, 2013. Credit: REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth
LONDON | Wed May 22, 2013 1:15pm EDT
(Reuters) - British Prime Minister David Cameron has called a meeting of his government's emergency Cobra security committee after the killing of a man in south London, his office said on Wednesday.
Britain's government convenes Cobra meetings only to deal with incidents that have implications for national security.
Media reports said a British soldier was killed in the incident in the Woolwich district in the southeast of the British capital.
"The prime minister says the killing in Woolwich is truly shocking and he has asked the home secretary (internal affairs minister) to chair a Cobra meeting," his office told Reuters.
At least one man was killed in the incident and two other people were shot by police officers at the scene, police said.
"A number of weapons were reportedly being used in the attack, and this included reports of a firearm," police said in a statement.
Security was tightened in the area immediately after the incident. Helicopters hovered above and nearby roads were sealed off by the police.
Earlier, a teacher at a local school told the BBC he saw a body on the road and afterwards heard gunshots. Photographs posted on social media showed at least two people on the ground who appeared to be injured, but no further details were immediately available.
(Reporting by Andrew Osborn and William James. Writing by Maria Golovnina, editing by Kate Holton/Guy Faulconbridge)
Al Jazeera's Laurence Lee reports from the scene of the attack
One person has died and at least two people have been wounded in an attack near a military training barracks in London, officials say.
Witnesses said the man was hacked to death with a machete-style knife in the Woolwich district in the southeast of the British capital on Wednesday.
ITV news network broadcast footage of an African man carrying a blooded machete, saying "we swear to Allah we'll continue fighting you".
Media reports said the victim was a serving British soldier.
"It is the most appalling crime," Prime Minister David Cameron said, before cutting short a visit to Paris.
"The police are urgently seeking the full facts about this case but there are strong indications that it is a terrorist incident."
Home Secretary Theresa May was to chair a meeting with the government's emergency COBRA security committee in response to the attack.
She said two men were shot by armed police and were receiving treatment for their injuries.
Al Jazeera's Laurence Lee, reporting from the scene, said witnesses said had come out of a car with a machete and a gun and started to chop the man into pieces.
Witnesses said the men had fearlessly approached police when they arrived and were shot.
Britain's Ministry of Defence said it was urgently investigating reports that a serving soldier was involved in the incident.
Security was tightened in the area immediately after the incident. Helicopters hovered above and nearby roads were sealed off by the police.
'We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you': What man holding bloody cleaver said after 'hacking soldier in Help For Heroes T-shirt to death just yards from Woolwich barracks'
Man tells camera: 'I apologise that women had to witness this today'
Soldier attacked with meat cleavers and knives in Woolwich, SE London
Eyewitness says: 'They were hacking at him, chopping him, cutting him'
Two suspects waited until police arrived before trying to attack them
Prime Minister David Cameron described the killing as 'truly shocking'
Theresa May calls a meeting of Government emergency committee Cobra
Suspects used 'a number of weapons' in attack, Metropolitan Police say
By Rob Cooper, Mark Duell and James Rush PUBLISHED: 14:49 GMT, 22 May 2013 | UPDATED: 18:53 GMT, 22 May 2013
A dramatic video tonight emerged of a man with bloodied hands, carrying knives and ranting 'We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you', after a serving soldier was hacked to death by two men just 200 yards from an Army barracks. The man can be seen and heard talking to the camera. The video came as terrified eyewitnesses saw two men shot by police marksmen after the machete attack in Woolwich, south-east London.
The two men are thought to have waited around for 20 minutes until Metropolitan Police officers arrived and then tried to attack them - but were swiftly shot by armed policemen, including a woman.They apparently shouted 'Allah Akbar', which means 'God is great' in Arabic, and tried to film the attack, the BBC's political editor Nick Robinson said. Scroll down for video
Shocking: This exclusive still from a video obtained by ITV News shows a man with bloodied hands and carrying knives speaking to a camera in Woolwich, south-east London
Statement: ITV News obtained footage of a man with bloodied hands and knives speaking to a camera
On the ground: Two men were shot by police marksmen after the machete attack in south-east London
Theresa May tonight called a meeting of the Government's emergency Cobra committee in response to the machete and knife attack on the man who was wearing a Help for Heroes t-shirt.The Home Secretary said she had been briefed on the killing by the head of MI5 and police later confirmed they were treating the incident as a possible terror attack.
Meanwhile Prime Minister David Cameron cancelled a meeting with French President Francois Hollande to return to London. He said Britain has faced similar terror attacks before and added: ‘We will never buckle in the face of it.’
Before the dramatic video of the bloodied man was obtained by ITV News, eyewitnesses said the 'crazed' men in their 20s launched a ferocious attack and were 'hacking, chopping and cutting him.'
In footage released by ITV News, a man with bloodied hands carrying a knife and a machete addresses people holding a camera, where he appears to attempt to justify the incident.
Speaking to those recording the scene he says: 'I apologise that women had to witness this today, but in our land our women have to see the same.'You people will never be safe. Remove your government, they don't care about you.'
In footage obtained by The Sun, he can also be heard saying: 'You think David Cameron is going to get caught in the street when we start busting our guns you think politicians are going to die?
Scene: One man died at the scene here in John Wilson Street, south London this afternoon while two were seriously injured
Two men were rushed to hospital this afternoon while another man died after apparently being hacked to death in Woolwich
British soldier hacked to death in suspected Islamist attack
By Maria Golovnina and Guy Faulconbridge
LONDON | Wed May 22, 2013 7:04pm EDT
(Reuters) - A British soldier was hacked to death by two men shouting Islamic slogans in a south London street on Wednesday, in what the government said appeared to be a terrorist attack.
A dramatic clip filmed by an onlooker just minutes after the killing showed a man with hands covered in blood, brandishing a bloodied meat cleaver and a knife.
"We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you. The only reason we have done this is because Muslims are dying every day," the black man in his 20s or 30s, wearing a wool jacket and jeans and speaking with a local accent, shouted in the footage obtained by Britain's ITV news channel.
"This British soldier is an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."
The attack was the first apparent Islamist killing in London since suicide bombers struck transport in July 2005. The capital was shocked by the bizarre scene of a killer covered in gore, declaring his motive to onlookers.
Police shot the two suspects while trying to arrest them, and the wounded men were taken into custody. No information was immediately released about the identity of the suspects, but two sources familiar with the investigation told Reuters authorities were investigating a possible link to Nigeria.
"I apologize that women had to witness that, but in our lands our women have to see the same thing. You people will never be safe. Remove your government. They don't care about you," the videotaped man said before crossing the street and speaking casually to the other attacker.
Prime Minister David Cameron cut short a visit to France to return to London and chair an emergency national security meeting.
"The police are urgently seeking the full facts about this case but there are strong indications that it is a terrorist incident," Cameron said before cutting short talks with French President Francois Hollande to return home.
"We have had these sorts of attacks before in our country and we never buckle in the face of them," he said.
The attack happened on the edge of London's sprawling Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, a south London working class district which has long-standing historic links to the military.
In signs of a backlash after the attack, more than 100 angry supporters of the English Defense League, a far-right street protest group, took to the streets, some wearing balaclavas and carrying England's red and white flag. They were contained by riot police.
Separately, two men were arrested in connection with separate attacks on mosques outside London. No one was hurt.
HELP FOR HEROS
The authorities did not immediately confirm the identity of the slain man, but a source told Reuters the man may have been a member of the military. The British government normally withholds the identities of slain servicemembers until their families are informed.
The victim was wearing a T-shirt saying "Help for Heroes", the name of a charity formed to help wounded British veterans. Britain has had troops deployed in Afghanistan since 2001 and had troops in Iraq from 2003-2009.
Before he was stabbed to death, the victim was knocked over by a blue car which then rammed into a lamppost. The attackers pounced on him in broad daylight in a busy residential street.
Witnesses said they shouted "God is greatest" in Arabic while stabbing the victim and trying to behead him.
"I am afraid it is overwhelmingly likely now to be a terrorist attack, the kind the city has seen before," London mayor Boris Johnson said. Police said in a statement late on Wednesday that the murder investigation was led by the Counter Terrorism Command, a specialist branch within the London force.
Fred Oyat, a 44-year-old local resident, said he witnessed the attack on the soldier from the window of his high-rise apartment overlooking the scene.
"The victim was white," he told Reuters. "I was in my house when four shots rung out. I went to the window I saw a man lying on the ground with a lot of blood."
London was last hit by a serious militant attack in July 2005, when four young Islamists set off suicide bombs on the public transport network, killing 52 people and wounding hundreds. A similar attempted attack 2 weeks later was thwarted.
British counter-terrorism chiefs have recently warned that radicalized individuals, so-called "lone wolves" who might have had no direct contact with al Qaeda, posed as great a risk as those who plotted attacks on the lines of the 2005 bombings.
The bombing attacks on the Boston Marathon last month, which U.S. authorities blame on two brothers, have raised the profile of the "lone wolf" threat in the West. A French-Algerian gunman killed three off-duty French soldiers and four Jewish civilians on a rampage in southern France last year.
Britain's involvement in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in the past decade has often stirred anger among British Muslims and occasionally made soldiers a target at home. British police have foiled at least two major plots in which Islamist suspects were accused of planning to kill off-duty troops.
Ahmed Jama, a 26-year-old Woolwich resident, laid flowers down at the scene as a sign of respect to the families involved.
"This has nothing to do with Islam, this has nothing to do with our religion. This has nothing to do with Allah," he said "It has nothing to do with Islam. It's heartbreaking, it's heartbreaking."
(Additional reporting by Li-mei Hoang, Mark Anderson, Andrew Osborn, William James, Mike Holden; Editing by Peter Graff)
Mum talked down Woolwich terrorists who told her: 'We want to start a war in London tonight'
Exclusive: A cub scout leader confronted terrorists just seconds after they had beheaded a soldier asking them to hand over their weapons and warning them: "It is only you versus many people, you are going to lose."
By Claire Duffin
9:55PM BST 22 May 2013
A mother-of-two described tonight how she put her own life on the line by trying to persuade the soldier’s murderers to hand over their weapons.
Cub scout leader Ingrid Loyau-Kennett selflessly engaged the terrorists in conversation and kept her nerve as one of them told her: “We want to start a war in London tonight.”
Mrs Loyau-Kennett, 48, from Cornwall, was one of the first people on the scene after the two Islamic extremists butchered a soldier in Woolwich, south east London.
She was photographed by onlookers confronting one of the attackers who was holding a bloodied knife.
[SUP]
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Ingrid Loyau-Kennett
Mrs Loyau-Kennett was a passenger on a number 53 bus which was travelling past the scene, and jumped off to check the soldier’s pulse.
“Being a cub leader I have my first aid so when I saw this guy on the floor I thought it was an accident then I saw the guy was dead and I could not feel any pulse.
“And then when I went up there was this black guy with a revolver and a kitchen knife, he had what looked like butcher’s tools and he had a little axe, to cut the bones, and two large knives and he said 'move off the body’.
“So I thought 'OK, I don’t know what is going on here’ and he was covered with blood. I thought I had better start talking to him before he starts attacking somebody else. I thought these people usually have a message so I said 'what do you want?’
“I asked him if he did it and he said yes and I said why? And he said because he has killed Muslim people in Muslim countries, he said he was a British soldier and I said really and he said 'I killed him because he killed Muslims and I am fed up with people killing Muslims in Afghanistan they have nothing to do there.”
Moments earlier, the killers had hacked at the soldier “like a piece of meat”, and when Mrs Loyau-Kennett arrived on the scene they were roaming John Wilson Street waiting for police to arrive so they could stage a final confrontation with them.
She said: “I started to talk to him and I started to notice more weapons and the guy behind him with more weapons as well. By then, people had started to gather around. So I thought OK, I should keep him talking to me before he noticed everything around him.
“He was not high, he was not on drugs, he was not an alcoholic or drunk, he was just distressed, upset. He was in full control of his decisions and ready to everything he wanted to do.
I said 'right now it is only you versus many people, you are going to lose, what would you like to do?’ and he said I would like to stay and fight.”
The suspect in the black hat then went to speak to someone else and Mrs Loyau-Kennett tried to engage with the other man in the light coat.
She said: “The other one was much shier and I went to him and I said 'well, what about you? Would you like to give me what you have in your hands?’ I did not want to say weapons but I thought it was better having them aimed on one person like me rather than everybody there, children were starting to leave school as well.
Mrs Loyau-Kennett was not the only woman to show extraordinary courage. Others shielded the soldier’s body as the killers stood over them.
MPs praised the “extraordinary bravery” of the women and raised concerns about why it took armed police 20 minutes to arrive at the scene while people’s lives were at risk.
According to a security source the delay in the armed police response is “particularly surprising” because there is a heavily armed police presence at Woolwich Crown Court, which is just two and a half miles away.
Keith Vaz, the Labour chairman of the Home Affairs select committee, said: “We are all grateful for the local people who responded so quickly.
“I do want to pay tribute to them [members of the public] – I think what they have done is extraordinarily brave and courageous.
“It shows the spirit of London that people are just not prepared to allow an attack of this kind. I pay tribute to what they have done.”
Patrick Mercer MP, a former army officer and former shadow counter terrorism minister, paid tribute to the people who shielded the body of the soldier.
He said: “This is courage of the highest order, it sounds as if these members of the public are not soldiers, not policemen, not people whose duties demand this, they are extremely courageous people and that courage deserves to be recognised at the highest level.”
Robert Buckland, a Conservative member of the justice select committee, said: “If it is the case [that police took 20 minutes to arrive] it is very worrying. If there was any unwarranted delay then that that needs to be investigated.”
Britain investigating possible Nigerian link in London attack
LONDON | Wed May 22, 2013 6:39pm EDT
(Reuters) - Britain is investigating a possible Nigerian link to attackers suspected of hacking a soldier to death in London while shouting Islamic slogans, two sources with knowledge of the investigation told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Two suspects have been taken into custody after the attack, which the British government said appeared to be an act of terrorism. Police have not identified the suspects.
The sources, speaking independently, said a Nigerian link was being investigated but gave no further details about the nature of the link. Police spokesmen declined to comment.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge in London and Mark Hosenball in Washington)
Woolwich: Terrorists Will Never Win - Cameron
Security is stepped up at army barracks around the UK as the Prime Minister vows the terrorists will be beaten back once more.
David Cameron says Britain has faced terror attacks such as the one in Woolwich before and has always beaten them back.
The Prime Minister was speaking at a news conference in Paris before cutting short the visit to return to the UK to chair a meeting of the Government's Cobra emergency committee this morning.
"I have been briefed by the Home Secretary about this absolutely sickening attack," Mr Cameron said.
"It is the most appalling crime. We are obviously seeking, and the police are urgently seeking the full facts about this case, but there are strong indications that it is a terrorist incident.
"Tonight, our thoughts should be with the victim, with their family, with their friends."
Home Secretary Theresa May described it as "an attack on everyone in the United Kingdom" after a Cobra meeting on Wednesday evening.
"The police and Security Service are establishing the full facts of this barbaric case, but there is a strong indication that it was an act of terrorism," she said.
"The Prime Minister is returning to London and will chair another Cobra meeting in the morning.
"In the meantime, security has been increased at army barracks across London."
The attack happened in London's southeast around 2.30pm
The Prime Minister said at the news conference that "terrorists will not win".
"We have suffered these attacks before and we have always beaten them back," he said.
"But above all the ways we've beaten them back is (by) showing an absolutely indomitable British spirit.
"That we will not be cowed (and) we will not buckle under these sorts of attacks.
"The terrorists will never win because they can never beat the values that we hold dear.
"The belief in freedom, in democracy, in free speech, in our British values, Western values.
"They are never going to defeat those, and that is how we will stand up to these people: whoever they are, however many there are of them.
"And that is why we will always win."
In expressing solidarity with Mr Cameron, French president Francois Hollande referred to the murdered man as a "British soldier", but Mr Cameron refused to confirm this.
Sky Home Affairs Correspondent Mark White said here has been a concern for some considerable time about the potential for homegrown terrorist groups.
"These kind of attacks do not need to be sophisticated and in many respects the less sophisticated they are, the more easily an attack can be perpetrated," he said.
"These homegrown terrorist cells of very low sophistication can choose insecure targets that do not have any level of security around them by going into crowded places or taking on individuals.
"The concern the police and the security services have is just how to keep an eye on these radicalised individuals who are willing to carry out low-level, unsophisticated attacks like this would seem to have been."
Drummer Lee Rigby, of the British Army's 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, is seen in an undated photo released May 23, 2013. REUTERS/Ministry of Defence/Crown Copyright/Handout
By Guy Faulconbridge and Michael Holden
LONDON | Thu May 23, 2013 2:13pm EDT
(Reuters) - British police arrested two more people on Thursday in a hunt for accomplices of two British men of Nigerian descent accused of hacking a soldier to death on a London street in revenge for wars in Muslim countries.
The two suspected killers, now under guard in hospitals, had been known to security services before Wednesday's daylight attack, security sources said. Another man and a woman, both aged 29, were detained on suspicion of conspiracy to murder.
One of the assailants, filmed calmly justifying the killing as he stood by the body holding a knife and meat cleaver in bloodied hands, was named by acquaintances as 28-year-old Londoner Michael Adebolajo - a British-born convert to Islam.
So frenzied was the attack, some witnesses thought they were trying to behead and disembowel the victim, who was named as a 25-year-old Afghan war veteran working as an army recruiter.
The attack, just a month after the Boston Marathon bombing and the first Islamist killing in Britain since local suicide bombers killed 52 people in London in 2005, revived fears of "lone wolves" who may have had no direct contact with al Qaeda.
Adebolajo and the other man, who may have been born abroad and later naturalized as British, were shot by police at the scene. Officers on the case raided six homes on Thursday.
Prime Minister David Cameron held an emergency meeting of his intelligence chiefs to assess the response to what he called a "terrorist" attack; it was the first deadly strike in mainland Britain since local Islamists killed dozens in London in 2005.
"We will never give in to terror or terrorism in any of its forms," Cameron said outside his Downing Street office.
"This was not just an attack on Britain and on the British way of life, it was also a betrayal of Islam and of the Muslim communities who give so much to our country."
U.S. President Barack Obama condemned it "in the strongest terms", adding in a statement: "The United States stands resolute with the United Kingdom, our ally and friend, against violent extremism and terror."
A source close to the investigation told Reuters that both attackers were known to Britain's MI5 internal security service. Adebolajo had handed out radical Islamist pamphlets but neither was considered a serious threat, a government source said.
Another source close to the inquiry said the local backgrounds of the suspects in a multicultural metropolis - nearly 40 percent of Londoners were born abroad - and the simplicity of the attack made prevention difficult:
"Apart from being horribly barbaric, this was relatively straightforward to carry out," the source said. "This was quite low-tech and that is frankly pretty challenging."
Anjem Choudary, one of Britain's most recognized Islamist clerics, told Reuters Adebolajo, was known to fellow Muslims as Mujahid - a name meaning "fighter": "He used to attend a few demonstrations and activities that we used to have in the past."
He added that he had not seen him for about two years: "He was peaceful, unassuming and I don't think there's any reason to think he would do anything violent," Choudary said.
A man called Paul Leech said on Twitter he was at school in the suburb of Romford with the man seen claiming the attack: "Michael Adebolajo u make me sick," he wrote. "How could someone who was a laugh and nice bloke at school turn out like that."
DAYLIGHT ATTACK
The two men used a car to run down Drummer Lee Rigby outside Woolwich Barracks in southeast London and then attacked him with a meat cleaver and knives, witnesses said. The pair told shocked bystanders they acted in revenge for British wars in Muslim countries. Rigby, who had a two-year-old son, was not in uniform. The bandsman was working locally as an army recruiter.
A dramatic clip filmed by an onlooker showed one of the men, identified as Adebolajo, his hands covered in blood and speaking in a local accent apologizing for taking his action in front of women but justifying it on religious grounds:
"We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you. The only reason we have done this is because Muslims are dying every day," he said. "This British soldier is an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."
The attack revived fears of "lone wolves". These may have had no direct contact with al Qaeda but are inspired by radical preachers and by Islamist militant Web sites, some of which urge people to attack Western targets with whatever means they have.
Images of the blood-soaked suspect were splashed across the front pages of newspapers; so too were links to his clearly spoken, matter-of-fact video statement, made as the pair chatted calmly to bystanders before police arrived many minutes later.
"We have all seen images that are deeply shocking," Cameron told reporters before visiting the barracks in Woolwich. "The people who did this were trying to divide us."
In Nigeria, with a mixed Christian-Muslim population and where the authorities are battling an Islamist insurgency, a government source said there was no evidence the Woolwich suspects were linked to groups in west Africa.
British investigators are looking at information that at least one of the suspects may have had an interest in joining Somalia-based Islamist rebel group al Shabaab which is allied to al Qaeda, a source with knowledge of the matter said.
Al Shabaab linked the attack to the Boston bombing and last year's gun attacks in the southern French city of Toulouse: "Toulouse, Boston, Woolwich ... Where next? You just have to grin and bear it, it's inevitable. A case of the chickens coming home to roost!" the rebels said on Twitter.
IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN
The grisly attack took place next to the sprawling Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, a south London working class district which has long-standing historic links to the military and is home to many immigrant communities, including Nigerians.
Rigby, who served in Afghanistan in 2009, was wearing a T-shirt reading "Help for Heroes", the name of a charity formed to help wounded British veterans. Britain has had troops deployed in Afghanistan since 2001 and had troops in Iraq from 2003-2009.
Witnesses said they shouted "Allahu akbar" - Arabic for God is greatest - while stabbing the victim and trying to behead him. A handgun was found at the scene.
Some onlookers rushed to help the soldier and one woman engaged the attackers in conversation to calm them down.
"He had what looked like butcher's tools — a little axe, to cut the bones, and two large knives. He said: 'Move off the body,'" said French-born former teacher Ingrid Loyau-Kennett.
"He said: 'I killed him because he killed Muslims and I am fed up with people killing Muslims in Afghanistan.'"
A trained first aider and Cub Scout leader, Loyau-Kennett was on a bus which was held up by the incident and she got off to try to help the victim. She found he was already dead.
Her attitude and that of other passers-by who remonstrated with the attackers was held up by Cameron as an example of resistance to attempts to terrorize the population:
"When told by the attacker that he wanted to start a war in London," Cameron said, "She replied, 'You're going to lose. It's only you versus many.' She spoke for us all."
London was last hit by a serious militant attack on July 7, 2005, when four young British Islamists set off suicide bombs on underground trains and a bus, killing 52 people and wounding hundreds. A similar attack two weeks later was thwarted.
In 2007, two days after police defused two car bombs outside London nightclubs, two men suspected of involvement, a British-born doctor of Iraqi descent and an Indian-born engineer, rammed a car laden with gas into the Glasgow Airport terminal, setting it ablaze. One of the attackers died and the other was jailed.
Britain has long known political violence on the streets. In 2009, two British soldiers were shot dead outside a barracks in Northern Ireland in an attack claimed by Irish republicans.
Woolwich, too, has seen attacks before. A soldier and a civilian were killed by an IRA bomb at a local pub in 1974. The barracks itself was bombed in 1983, wounding five people.
Peter Clarke, who led the investigation into the 2005 bombings, popularly known as 7/7, said that if the Woolwich attackers did turn out to be acting alone, it showed the difficulty the security services faced in trying to stop them.
"An attack like this doesn't need sophisticated fund raising and sophisticated communications or planning," he told Reuters. "It can be organized and then actually delivered in a moment."
(Additional reporting by Kate Holton, Andrew Osborn, Costas Pitas, Estelle Shirbon, Peter Griffiths, Mark Hosenball and Mark Anderson; Writing by Guy Faulconbridge and Maria Golovnina; Editing by Peter Graff and Alastair Macdonald)
Woolwich attack: suspects were known to security services
The security services are likely to face questions after it emerged that both suspects in the killing of a soldier in Woolwich were already known to them.
The two men who murdered a soldier in Woolwich were both British citizens, but their origins were in the troubled West African country of Nigeria. Photo: ITV/@dannymckiernan
By Rosa Silverman
2:58PM BST 23 May 2013
It is understood that the man widely named as Michael Adebolajo and his fellow suspect have featured in “several investigations” in recent years.
Reports suggest they were not thought to be planning an attack, however.
Sources told the BBC that one of the suspects was intercepted by police last year while leaving the country.
He was reportedly heading to Somalia to join al Shabaab militants.
MI5 had collected information on the two men before yesterday’s brutal attack took place in Woolwich, south east London.
MI6 were also reported to have done so, and the suspects were known to police as well.
Whitehall sources told The Times that their names were “on a file.”
They stressed that that did not necessarily indicate internal failings by security services.
But the fact that the suspects were already on their radar will prompt some to ask whether the attack could have been prevented.
Others will argue that since the weapons the suspects were seen with afterwards – knives and a meat cleaver – are readily available in the shops, such an attack would be hard to pre-empt.
Speaking in Downing Street earlier, David Cameron, the Prime Minister, declined to comment on reports that the suspects were known to MI5.
But he said the Intelligence and Security Committee would undertake a full investigation to ascertain whether there were any failings before the attack.
Al Shabaab, the Islamist group that one of the suspects may have sought to join, is Al-Qaeda's army in Somalia.
It has been fighting to turn the east African country into an Islamic state and currently controls large swathes of it.
Somalia is held to be a failed state, scarred by multiple conflicts since its long-serving ruler Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991.
Police in London have arrested a man and a woman in connection with the murder of a British soldier near a military barrack.
Detectives said on Thursday they had arrested the unidentified suspects, both aged 29, over the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby, 25, who was hacked to death in Woolwich on Wednesday.
"This is a large, complex and fast-moving investigation which continues to develop," London police said in a statement. "Many lines of inquiry are being followed by detectives and the investigation is progressing well."
Detectives said they were searching six houses; three in Greenwich in south London, one in Romford, east London, one in north London, and a property in Lincoln in central England.
Meanwhile, Rigby's two main suspected attackers were in separate hospitals being treated for gun shot wounds. They were fired at by officers at the scene of the killing.
A new video has emerged of the two suspects, who appear to run at the police as they arrived at the scene of the crime.
They had been known to MI5 security services before the attack, reports said.
One man is believed to be 28-year-old Londoner Michael Adebolajo, who is of Nigerian descent, and is said to have converted to Islam 10 years ago.
Rigby served in Afghanistan in 2009, Britain's Ministry of Defence said.
"An extremely popular and witty soldier, Drummer Rigby was a larger than life personality within the Corps of Drums and was well known, liked and respected across the Second Fusiliers" a statement from the ministry said.
Extra police
London deployed more than 1,200 extra police officers on the capital's streets amid fears of a backlash on British Muslims.
"This action was a betrayal of Islam and the Muslim communities that give so much to our country ... we will not rest until we know every detail."
David Cameron, UK prime minister
The attackers had made references to Islam in amateur footage broadcast on television.
Al Jazeera's Rory Challands, reporting from London's Scotland Yard, said the government is "making this gesture to calm down people's fears".
"People are shocked and scared from what they saw, but the government wants to make sure that there is no blame attributed to minorities. These extra police are on streets to reassure people," our correspondent said.
Footage broadcast by Britain's ITV news channel showed a man, with hands soaked in blood and holding a meat cleaver and a knife, claiming that he had, motivated by Britain's foreign policy, killed a soldier.
Witnesses said he requested to be filmed by a passerby and shouted "Allahu Akbar" during the killing.
In the amateur video, he said: "I apologise that women had to witness this today but in our lands, our women have to see the same ... you people will never be safe. Remove your government, they don't care about you."
The second attacker is believed to be 22 years old.
'Standing together'
Later on Thursday, President Barack Obama offered his support to Britain saying the US "stands resolute with the United Kingdom, our ally and friend, against violent extremism and terror," in a statement.
"I look forward to my trip to the United Kingdom to participate in the June G-8 Summit, hosted by Prime Minister Cameron, which will include discussions on the important global security challenges our countries face together."
After a second meeting of the government's emergency COBRA security council on Thursday, Cameron said the country would "defeat violent extremism by standing together".
"This action was a betrayal of Islam and the Muslim communities that give so much to our country ... we will not rest until we know every detail."
Cameron also praised the actions of Ingrid Loyau-Kennett, a cub scout leader who confronted the attackers immediately after the violence and tried to talk them down.
"They told her they wanted to start a war in London and she replied, 'you are going to lose, it is you against many," Cameron said. "She speaks for all of us."
Al Jazeera's Laurence Lee, reporting from Woolwich, said it was essential that political and religious leaders restore calm in the face of violence from the UK's far-right.
"The English Defence League wanted to use this to their advantage. They came out last night chanting 'no surrender to Muslims,' and clashed with riot police," our correspondent said.
Police in the county of Kent, south of London, said they had charged a man with "religiously aggravated criminal damage and burglary" to a mosque.
The Muslim Council of Britain condemned the Woolwich attack, saying: "This is a truly barbaric act that has no basis in Islam and we condemn this unreservedly."
Suspected killer of British soldier was held in Kenya
By Peter Griffiths and Drazen Jorgic
LONDON/NAIROBI | Sun May 26, 2013 10:49am EDT
(Reuters) - One of two men arrested over the murder of a British soldier in a London street was detained in Kenya in 2010 on suspicion of seeking to train with an al Qaeda-linked group in Somalia, Kenyan police said on Sunday.
Confirmation that Michael Adebolajo was held in Kenya and deported to London will intensify calls for Britain's spy agencies to explain what they knew about the suspect and whether they could have done more to prevent Lee Rigby's killing on Wednesday.
The British parliament's security committee will next week investigate the security services' actions in the run-up to a killing that has put pressure on Prime Minister David Cameron to take a harder line on radicals.
The Nairobi government initially said Adebolajo had never visited Kenya. But on Sunday, Boniface Mwaniki, head of Kenya's anti-terrorism police, said Adebolajo was arrested in November 2010 and deported to Britain.
"He was arrested with a group of five others trying to travel to Somalia to join militant group al Shabaab," he told Reuters.
The Islamist force, which is linked to al Qaeda, wants to impose a strict version of Islamic law across Somalia.
A Foreign Office spokeswoman in London confirmed the arrest and said consular officials had provided assistance.
Adebolajo, 28 and Michael Adebowale, 22, are under guard in hospital after being shot and arrested after the murder of the 25-year-old Afghan war veteran. They have not been charged.
Spy agencies have come under scrutiny after uncorroborated allegations by a friend of Adebolajo on Friday that intelligence officers tried to recruit him six months ago.
Asked whether the security services had contacted the men, Home Secretary (interior minister) Theresa May told the BBC: "Their job is about gathering intelligence. They do that from a variety of sources and they will do that in a variety of ways. And yes, they will approach individuals from time to time."
A source close to the investigation told Reuters this week that both suspects were known to the MI5 domestic security service. However, neither was thought to pose a serious threat.
'POISONOUS NARRATIVE'
The government also said it is forming a group to combat radical Muslim preachers and others whose words could encourage violence.
Prime Minister David Cameron's office said the group aimed to fight radicalism in schools and mosques, tighten checks on inflammatory internet material, and disrupt the "poisonous narrative" of hardline clerics.
Rigby's killing fuelled public anger about radical Islam. It has also raised questions over whether more could have done more to prevent the attack and put pressure on Cameron to tackle suspected militants more forcefully.
Witnesses said the soldier's killers shouted Islamist slogans during the attack. Bystanders filmed one of the suspects saying it was in revenge for Britain's involvement in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Successive British governments have wrestled with how to prevent people from becoming radicalized without alienating the wider population with draconian measures.
Former British prime minister Tony Blair tried to tighten rules against hate preachers after the London bombings in 2005 that killed 52 commuters. The measures stirred a long debate over how to balance free speech and civil rights with a strong counter-terrorism strategy.
Britain's two-party coalition government is divided over a planned new law that would allow police and spy agencies to monitor people's use of the internet and mobile phones.
The Muslim Council of Britain, a religious umbrella group, said new government measures risked "making our society less free, divided and suspicious of each other".
(Additional reporting Nicolas Bertin in Paris and Joseph Akwiri and Humphrey Malalo in Kenya; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
Woolwich murder: three more arrested over killing of Lee Rigby
Two men detained at address in south-east London while another arrested in the street, all on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder
Press Association
The Guardian Sunday 26 May 2013 08.58 BST
Floral tributes left by members of the public where Drummer Lee Rigby was murdered in Woolwich, south-east London, on Wednesday. Photograph: Bogdan Maran/EPA
Detectives have made three further arrests in connection with the brutal killing of soldier Lee Rigby.
Two men, aged 24 and 28, were detained at an address in south-east London on Saturday, while a 21-year-old man was arrested in the street in Charlton Lane, Greenwich, all on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder.
Police from the counter-terrorism command, supported by specialist firearms officers, used Tasers to detain the 21- and 28-year-old. They did not need hospital treatment.
The arrests came as Downing Street confirmed the launch of a new terror task force to crack down on extremism.
The group, comprising cabinet ministers and top police and security service officials, will focus on radical preachers who seek out potential recruits in prisons, schools, colleges and mosques.
The prime minister has also announced that the parliamentary intelligence and security committee (ISC) will carry out an investigation following the disclosure that the two men suspected of murdering Drummer Rigby – identified as Michael Adebolajo, 28, and Michael Oluwatobi Adebowale, 22 – were known to MI5.
Authorities in France are also investigating whether the murder of Drummer Rigby was linked to an attack on a French soldier, who was stabbed in the neck in a busy shopping area near Paris on Saturday.
The latest arrests in London occurred between 6pm and 6.30pm, and the three men are being held at a south London police station, Scotland Yard said.
Officers were last night searching four addresses in south-east London. Searches have also taken place at three other addresses in south London, one in east London, one in north London and one in Saxilby, Lincolnshire, the former home of Adebolajo.
A 29-year-old man arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder has now been released on bail, police said on Saturday night.
Two women aged 29 and 31 have been released without charge after they were held on Thursday on suspicion of conspiracy to murder, and a number of other people not directly involved with the attack have been charged over malicious comments made on social networking sites.
Adebolajo and Adebowale remained in a stable condition in hospital after being shot by police when they charged towards armed officers in Woolwich on Wednesday.
Drummer Rigby was hit by a car and then attacked with weapons including a knife and a meat cleaver.
The cause of his death has not yet been confirmed by a postmortem examination.
The young father's murder has provoked a backlash of anger across the country, with mosques being attacked, widespread racial abuse and comments on social media and a large increase in anti-Muslim incidents.
Up to 2,000 people took part in a EDL march in Newcastle on Saturday, which had been planned before Wednesday's attack.
EDL supporters sang "RIP Lee Rigby" as they marched through the city, waving union flags and chanting "Whose streets? Our streets", before holding a minute's silence for the murdered soldier.
Police said there were no major incidents, with a small number of arrests related to alcohol and public order offences. Three people were held before the march for allegedly making racist tweets.
Meanwhile, the BNP has been accused of cynically exploiting the killing to further its "own poisonous ends" after the far-right group announced it would be demonstrating in Woolwich next Saturday.
But while there have been widespread tensions, near the spot of Drummer Rigby's murder people showed solidarity on Saturday as they comforted one another and left floral tributes, adding to the thousands of bouquets already there.
Along with the floral tributes at the corner of John Wilson Street and Artillery Place, where the attack took place, many hundreds more have been left outside the entrance to Woolwich barracks a few hundred yards away, where Drummer Rigby was based.
Drummer Rigby's family also paid tribute to the soldier they described as their "hero".
"Lee's dream growing up was always to join the army, which he succeeded in doing. He was dedicated and loved his job," they said in a statement.
Drummer Rigby's wife Rebecca, mother of their two-year-old son Jack, said through tears that he was "a devoted father".
A book of condolence has been opened at Woolwich town hall, where opening hours have been extended over the bank holiday weekend to allow the public to pay their respects.
A service dedicated to the solider will be held at St Peter the Apostle Roman Catholic church in Woolwich on Sunday, while prayers will also be said at Woolwich's St Mary Magdalene parish church.
Donations to the Help for Heroes charity through the JustGiving page linked to the RIP Woolwich Soldier Facebook tribute page topped £102,000 on Sunday.
Almost £19,000 has also been raised on the official Help for Heroes JustGiving page.
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Three More Arrested Following Murder of UK Soldier
Three people arrested in southeast London in connection with the killing of soldier Drummer Lee Rigby are released on bail.
9:44am Monday 27 May 2013
Drummer Lee Rigby was murdered near Woolwich barracks on Wednesday
Three men who were held on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder following the death of Drummer Lee Rigby have been released on bail.
The trio, aged 21, 24 and 28, were arrested in southeast London on Saturday, three days after the 25-year old soldier was hit by a car and then attacked with a knife and a meat cleaver in Woolwich.
They have been bailed to return to a south London police station, the Metropolitan Police said.
Michael Adebolajo, 28, and Michael Oluwatobi Adebowale, 22, who were arrested on suspicion of murder at the scene of the killing on Wednesday, remain under arrest.
Counter-terrorism officers are also continuing to question a 22-year-old man in Highbury Grove, north London, who was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder.
Meanwhile, anti-terror police in Nairobi have confirmed that Adebolajo was also arrested in Kenya in 2010.
Adebolajo appeared in court in Mombasa suspected of leading a group of Islamists trying to join the al Shabaab group.
Anti-terrorism unit chief Boniface Mwaniki said Adebolajo was believed to have been preparing to train and fight with the al Qaeda-linked Somali militant group.
Michael Adebolajo (highlighted) in court in Kenya in 2010
Adebolajo was arrested with five others, and later deported, which is common in Kenya when involvement with terrorism is suspected.
Mr Mwaniki denied accusations that Adebolajo had been abused while in custody in Kenya.
The Foreign Office said in a statement: "We can confirm a British national was arrested in Kenya in 2010."
It provided consular assistance, as is normal for British nationals.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Osborne, head of the Counter Terrorism Command, said officers were working on the complicated investigation "tirelessly and painstakingly".
"We are pursuing a significant amount of CCTV, social media, forensic and intelligence opportunities and have active lines of inquiry."
The two suspects arrested at the scene of the killing remain in hospital and will be formally interviewed when it is possible to do so, Mr Osborne said. They were shot by police when they charged towards armed officers in Woolwich.
Mr Osborne continued: "This remains an ongoing investigation, focused upon public safety and identifying any others that may be involved.
"The investigation is progressing well, but there is still a lot more work to be done."
Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife Samantha in an Ibiza bar
He appealed for anyone with information to contact the confidential anti-terrorist hotline on 0800 789 321.
Home Secretary Theresa May has revealed that counter-terrorism officers from around the country have been brought in to boost the total number of police working on the investigation to 500.
The arrests came as Downing Street confirmed the launch of a new terror task force to crack down on extremism.
The group, comprising Cabinet ministers and top police and security service officials, will focus on radical preachers who seek out potential recruits in prisons, schools, colleges and mosques.
David Cameron, who is on a family holiday in Ibiza, has also said that the parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) will carry out an investigation after it emerged that Adebolajo and Adebowale were known to MI5.
Authorities in France are also investigating whether the murder of Drummer Rigby was linked to an attack on a French soldier, who was stabbed in the neck in a busy shopping area in Paris on Saturday.
British police have arrested a tenth suspect in connection with the street killing of a soldier in London, an attack that has heightened racial tensions in the country.
This developed as Britain's parliamentary intelligence committee said on Tuesday that it will carry out a report into whether UK intelligence services fell short before the killing of 25-year-old Lee Rigby.
Malcolm Rifkind, chair of Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee, was quoted as saying that MI5 has pledged to cooperate as the committee tries to "get to the bottom: of the agency's work.
He said the committee will "go where the evidence takes us'' and judge if there was a problem.
British Prime Minister David Cameron and Parliament will receive a report after the committee's deliberations, he said, adding that some elements of the report may be redacted on national security grounds for public viewing.
On Monday, a 50-year-old man became the tenth suspect and was detained in Welling, east of London, on suspicion of conspiring to murder 25-year-old soldier Lee Rigby, Scotland Yard said.
Police gave no further information about the suspect's identity.
The two main suspects, Michael Adebolajo, 28, and Michael Adebowale, 22, are still under armed guard in separate London hospitals.
Four other men and the suspect arrested Monday remain in custody at a London police station, while one other man has been released on bail.
Two women were released without charge in the case.
British officials say the two main suspects had been known to them for some time, but revelations that Adebolajo had been arrested in Kenya in 2010 and claims that British security officials had tried to recruit him as an informer after that have fuelled questions about whether UK authorities could have done more to prevent last week's killing.
Mosques attacked
Far-right protesters marched through the streets of central London on Monday chanting anti-Muslim slogans as part of the backlash of the killing of a British soldier last week.
Police arrested 13 people, mostly on suspicion of causing public disorder.
Anti-Islamic sentiment has been spreading throughout the UK since the attack.
About 1,000 protesters, spurred on by leaders of the far-right English Defence League, gathered in London shouting slogans such as "Muslim killers, off our streets."
In the tense, but largely peaceful demonstration, marchers rallied outside Prime Minister David Cameron's residence waving placards and shouting anti-Islamic obscenities.
"Islamic extremism is probably the number one threat to Britain," one protester, Ben Gates, said.
Since Rigby's death, mosques have been attacked and two men were arrested overnight on Sunday for throwing firebombs at an Islamic cultural centre in Grimsby, in the northeast of England.
Faith Matters, a charity working to defuse religious tensions, said it had registered a spike in reports of Islamophobic attacks in calls to its hotline, describing incidents as "very focused, very aggressive attacks".
Nearly 2,000 people marched at a similar demonstration in the northern city of Newcastle on Saturday.
'Growing minority'
As anti-racist groups warned there could be more reprisals, Cameron came under intense pressure on Monday for going on holiday, with pictures of him relaxing in Ibiza prompting newspapers to question his leadership at a time of unease.
Two war memorials in London were vandalised with red graffiti overnight, including the word "Islam" spray-painted onto one monument.
In an attempt to counter the right-wing rally, anti-fascist group Unite Against Racism held its own demonstration nearby but was heavily outnumbered by EDL protesters.
A handful of far-right demonstrators threw bottles and coins at the anti-fascist rally. Police vans and officers blocked the two groups from approaching each other.
"They are a minority and a very scary growing minority," an anti-EDL protester who gave her name as Clara said. "I feel ashamed to be a Londoner today. This is disgusting."
Woolwich suspect Adebolajo was arrested 'waiting for boat to Somalia'
Before 2010 Kenyan trial Adebolajo asked relative of radical cleric to show him Lamu, police say
Jessica Hatcher in Lamu
The Guardian Wednesday 29 May 2013 19.12 BST
Michael Adebolajo, centre, in a Kenyan court with others arrested on 22 November 2010. Photograph: Michael Richards/AFP/Getty Images
A planned trip to Somalia by the Woolwich murder suspect Michael Adebolajo was cut short by a Kenyan police informer just before he reached the country, police sources in Kenya said.
Adebolajo, who was escorted on the 2010 trip to a remote island waypoint in northern Kenya by a man now accused of planning two other attacks in Kenya, had with him four minors, described by local law enforcers as schoolchildren.
Before the case was closed in the Kenyan courts Adebolajo was deported to the UK, but police where he was arrested are unequivocal about the intentions of the group. "They were going to Somalia," one said.
Adebolajo told police that he had spent a couple of days in the Kenyan city of Mombasa where he met Swaleh Abdulmajid; he asked Abdulmajid to show him Lamu, said an officer.
Abdulmajid, who was born in Lamu, was later charged with preparation to commit a felony after allegedly planning an attack on the central police station in Mombasa.
While witnesses said the two men seemed not to know each other very well, Adebolajo and Abdulmajid – as the only two adults in the group supposedly heading for Somalia – are said to have spent a number of nights together in cells.
Abdulmajid is the son-in-law of the radical Muslim cleric Aboud Rogo, who was killed by unknown gunmen last year.
Adebolajo and the five others arrived by bus from Mombasa at the mainland Lamu jetty on the evening of Saturday 20 November 2010.
The pot-holed, rocky and corrugated road from Mombasa links the Coast Province to the North Eastern District, which borders Somalia. A police officer at one roadblock said that, each year, he arrested four or five al-Shabaab suspects, but that bus passengers usually avoided scrutiny.
The Lamu archipelago has been favoured for its remoteness by celebrities, including Sienna Miller and Jude Law. But its inaccessibility has proved useful also to those operating outside the law.
Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, an al-Qaida leader in east Africa, who was killed in a shootout with police in 2011, lived on Pate island where Adebolajo was arrested while allegedly planning an attack on a Mombasa hotel, which killed 15 people.
In 2011 unknown gunmen kidnapped a disabled French woman, Marie Dedieu, who later died. Southern Somalia, which still provides home-turf for the al-Qaida affiliated militants al-Shabaab, is only 40 miles north from Pate Island.
Adebolajo and his companions, on their 2010 trip, found a speedboat to drive them north for an hour at full throttle and into a narrow channel lined with mangroves to reach the small town of Faza on Pate island.
The men arrived at the Faza guesthouse at about 8pm; they left without paying before dawn.
"Nobody saw them," said Ahmed Hassan, 44, whose family owns the guesthouse, which is located beneath the government's registration office for people visiting the island.
The pair then took a boat from Faza to Kizingitini, just five minutes away but one step closer to Somalia. Kizingitini's 200-metre stone jetty is a common launching point for Somalia, locals say.
It was here that Adebolajo was arrested on the morning of 21 November while waiting for a speedboat from Somalia to take him to "the other side", as a police officer said.
Police in Lamu operate an informal intelligence network that includes fishermen and boat captains. It was one of these "friends" that informed police of the suspicious visitors, which led to their arrest.
Adebolajo claimed he just wanted to visit the island, and said he was in Lamu for the Islamic festival Mawlid. A witness described him as cooperative during the arrest.
Adebolajo was found to be the only one with a significant amount of money, having about 40,000 Kenyan shillings (£300) in cash. None of his companions carried bags, and they had only the clothes they were wearing, a witness said.
Adebolajo appeared in court with the others on 24 November, but the case was adjourned to give the prosecution time to gather evidence.
Ahmed Hassan, a brother of the guesthouse owner who stood in the dock next to Adebolajo for the first hearing, noted with surprise at the second hearing that "the foreigner" had gone.
Adebolajo's arrest in Kenya has raised questions about cooperation between Kenyan and British security agencies. All six defendants appeared in court on 24 November, along with the owners of the guesthouse where they had lodged.
The case was adjourned to give the prosecution time to gather evidence, but Adebolajo left the country on 26 November, according to immigration sources, before the second hearing took place. It is not yet known what he did on the intervening day.
Hussein Khaled, executive director of Muslims for Human Rights in Kenya, believes that MI5 was instrumental in expediting Adebolajo. He said that security forces should have exercised extreme caution. "Anybody found like that on the border of Kenya and Somalia is a potential terrorist," Khaled said. "The speed with which they [gave] the green light to let this guy go is strange."
