Thursday, May 23, 2013
Los Angeles Times
LONDON
As bystanders watched in horror, two assailants purportedly hacked a man to death in broad daylight on a London street Wednesday before being shot and wounded by police, who are investigating the incident as a likely terrorist attack.
The two suspects, who reportedly shouted “God is great!” in Arabic as they mounted their assault, set upon a young a man near a military barracks in the southeast London neighborhood of Woolwich, police said. The attackers reportedly slashed their victim to death with knives or machetelike weapons, then advanced menacingly on officers, who shot them, according to witness accounts.
“There are strong indications that it is a terrorist incident,” said Prime Minister David Cameron, who called it a “most appalling crime.” He added: “We have had these sorts of attacks before in our country, and we never buckle in the face of them.”
Cameron cut short a visit to mainland Europe after the assault. He was scheduled to chair a meeting this morning of his Cabinet’s emergency-response committee, indicating the high level of concern with which the government is treating the attack.
After an initial meeting Wednesday evening, the committee announced that the government would step up security near military installations in London. But officials so far have declined to confirm reports that the dead man was a soldier based at the barracks of the Royal Artillery, a fenced-in compound a stone’s throw from where the assault occurred.
Late Wednesday, riot police gathered to guard against violence by protesters with the far-right, anti-Muslim English Defense League who converged on the attack site.
The two suspects remained hospitalized. Detectives are eager to question them to determine whether the attack was in fact an act of Islamic terrorism and, if so, whether the men were rogue extremists working on their own or affiliated with a terrorist group such as al-Qaida.
The British television network ITV broadcast footage Wednesday evening of what it said was one of the purported attackers holding a knife and a machete or cleaver in his bloodied hands and ranting to the person filming him — a passer-by who had just gotten off a bus, the network said.
“I apologize that women had to witness this today. But in our lands, our women have to see the same,” the man says in British-accented English. “You people will never be safe! Remove your government — they don’t care about you.”
It was not clear what lands he meant.
The network said that the assailant also declared: “We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you.”
The attack took place about 2:20 p.m. Witnesses told news media that the suspects rammed their car into their victim on a street by the barracks, knocked him over, then jumped out and began viciously hacking at him on the ground with knives as if he were a “piece of meat.” Scotland Yard said bystanders called in reports of two men wielding numerous weapons, including machetes and possibly a firearm.
Although preliminary indications pointed strongly to a jihadist attack, officials appealed to residents to refrain from making premature judgments.
“It is really far too early for us to draw conclusions,” said Mayor Boris Johnson, who described the attack as “a sickening and unforgivable act of violence.”
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.