Two more arrests in brutal London attack

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2013/05/23/london-attack-street-soldier-muslim-attack-butchered-knives/2353841/

Two Muslim hard-liners say one man videotaped in the attack is a Christian convert to Islam.

(Photo: British Ministry of Defense, AP)

Story Highlights

• One suspect arrested at the scene is a Christian convert to Islam, the BBC says
• Prime minister says best antidote to terrorism is “to go about our normal lives”
• 48-year-old Cub Scout leader who confronted the attackers is hailed as a hero

LONDON — Scotland Yard says two more people have been arrested by officers investigating the hacking death of a British soldier on the streets of south London.

Counterterrorism officers arrested a man and a woman — both 29 — on Thursday on suspicion of conspiracy to murder. Both suspects are in custody at a south London police station.

The first two suspects, who were shot and arrested by police at the scene Wednesday, remained hospitalized in stable condition with injuries that are not life-threatening, police said.

The pair — a 22-year-old man and a 28-year-old man — were also subjects of earlier security service investigations into possible terror links, according to a British government official, the Associated Press report.

Investigations by Britain’s domestic security service, MI5, can include undercover surveillance, phone tapping and communications intercepts.

The latest arrests came as Ministry of Defense identified the victim as drummer Lee Rigby, 25, of the 2nd Battalion the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.

A tweet from the BBC shows a still from video of one of the suspects, Michael Adebolajo, left, in the London attack attending an Islamist demonstration in 2007.(Photo: BBC/Twitter)

Rigby, from Manchester, served abroad in Cyprus, Afghanistan and Germany. The ministry said in a statement that Rigby, a member of the Corps of Drums, was “an excellent side drummer and highly competent machine gunner.”

“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,” the statement said. “He was a passionate and life-long Manchester United fan.” He leaves behind a 2-year-old son, the ministry said.

Prime Minister David Cameron, who chaired a meeting Thursday of the government’s emergency response committee Cobra, said the images of the attack were “deeply shocking” but would not deter the British people from standing up to terrorism.

“One of the best ways of defeating terrorism is to go about our normal lives,” he said. “That is what we shall do today.”

The assailants struck the soldier, apparently at random, with their car on Wednesday, then attacked him with knives and meat cleavers. They stayed on the scene until police arrived.

First Take: London in shock

During the night, police raided two homes, one in Greenwich and one in Lincolnshire, in connection with their investigation into the brutal attack. Two women, believed to be sisters, were handcuffed and led away from a house in Greenwich, ITV News reports.

The Associated Press, quoting an unidentified British official, said both men had been part of an earlier security services probe.

The BBC, quoting unidentified sources, reported that one of the suspects is 28-year-old Michael Adebolajo, who comes from a devout Christian family but converted to Islam after leaving the University of Greenwich, in Eltham, in 2001. Adebolajo is a Briton of Nigerian descent. The BBC said he was described as “bright and witty” when he was at college.

Ingrid Loyau-Kennett confronted two attackers on a London street after they killed a British soldier. She said later that she wanted to calm them down so they wouldn’t attack anyone else.(Photo: Loyau-Kennett family via AFP/Getty Images)

One of the men, identified in the British media as Adebolajo, sought to justify his actions in chilling remarks to a bystander who recorded the attack near the Royal Artillery Barracks in south London on video.

“We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you,” he said, clutching knives in his bloodied hands. “The only reasons we have done this is because Muslims are dying every day. This British soldier is an eye for an eye, a tooth for tooth. We apologize that women had to see 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.”

He didn’t identify what “lands” as he urged people to tell the government to “bring our troops back.” British troops are deployed in Afghanistan and recently supported the French-led intervention in Mali.

Responding the death of a British soldier, Sir David Richards, chief of defense staff, said “it’s always a tragedy, it’s particularly poignant that it happened on the streets of this capital city of ours.”

“We’re absolutely determined not to be intimidated into not doing the right thing — whether it’s here in this country or in Afghanistan or wherever we seek to serve the nation,” Richards added.

Muslim religious groups and charities were quick to condemn the attack and urged police to calm tensions. The Muslim Council of Britain called it a “barbaric act that has no basis in Islam,” adding that “no cause justifies this murder.”

A radical, controversial cleric, Anjem Choudary, told The Independent, that Adebolajo took the name “Mujahid” after converting to Islam in 2003. He said Adebolajo, who came from a community settled by many Muslims from Somalia and Pakistan, often attended lectures and took part in demonstrations with the banned radical group al-Muhajiroun.

“He was a pleasant, quiet guy,” Choudary said. “He reverted to Islam in about 2003. He was just a completely normal guy. He was interested in Islam, in memorizing the Koran. He disappeared about two years ago. I don’t know what influences he has been under since then.”

Choudary, an outspoken critic of British military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, insisted that his own teachings have never preached that attacks on British troops or security personnel in Britain were justified.

Omar Bakri Muhammad — who now lives in Lebanon but had been a radical Muslim preacher in London — also said he recognized the man seen on television as Adebolajo and said he attended his London lectures in the early 2000s. Police have not named Adebolajo.

The prime minister, in his remarks, said confronting extremism is a “job for us all” and singled out for praise a 48-year-old Cub Scout leader, Ingrid Loyau-Kennett, who got off a bus to confront one of the suspects and tried to calm him.

In an interview with the the Daily Telegraph, Loyau-Kennett was asked if she was scared, and replied: “No — better me than a child.”

“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?'” said Loyau-Kennett, who lives in Cornwall in southwest England.

It did not seem like he was about to attack her and “the policeman was the next target,” she said.

Loyau-Kennett said she was not scared and that the armed men did not seem to be drunk or on drugs. She said she was trying to keep them occupied so they didn’t get more agitated.

She reboarded her bus shortly before police arrived, watching as police shot the two suspects, the BBC reported.

Tags: Attack, British, terrorism