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May, 22, 2013: Police and forensic officers near the scene of an attack which has left one man confirmed dead and two people wounded near Woolwich barracks in London.AP
The two suspected Muslim terrorists involved in the savage daylight murder of a British soldier near a London barracks on Wednesday had been previously investigated by UK security sources for possible terrorist links, it is being reported.
The information was provided by a British government official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the investigation.
Few details are known about the suspects but, according to the BBC, one of them is believed to be a 28-year-old Muslim convert, Michael Adebolajo. Reuters reported that the two men were British citizens of Nigerian descent
In a statement made outside his Downing Street office after having chaired a meeting of the British government's COBRA (Cabinet Office Briefing Room A) emergency committee, British Prime Minister David Cameron refused to comment about whether security forces had prior knowledge of the suspects. However, he firmly condemned the attacks in Churchillian terms, stating: “We will never give in to terror, or terrorism, in any of its forms.”
Additionally, the Conservative Prime Minister emphasized that “there is nothing in Islam that justifies this truly dreadful act,” and that the fault lied solely with the “sickening individuals” who perpetrated the attack. He also noted that more Muslim lives have been lost in terrorist acts than any other religion.
Cameron also praised the bravery of Ingrid Loyau-Kennett, a cub scout leader and mother of two, who got off a bus and tried to reason with the attackers after she tried to help the victim lying on the street.
The 48-year-old tried to keep talking to the two attackers before police arrived at the scene near the Royal Artillery Barracks in the neighborhood of Woolwich.
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Loyau-Kennett said that when one of the attackers told her that they wanted to start a war in London, she responded: "It is only you versus many people. You are going to lose."
Saying she wanted to stop one of the suspects from attacking anyone else, she asked him if he "did it" and what he wanted.
Loyau-Kennett said she saw a crashed car and the victim lying on the street and tried to help him since she had been trained in first aid. She had determined the man was dead by the time the attackers confronted her.
She said "a black guy with a black hat and a revolver in one hand and a cleaver in the other came over" and excitedly warned her to stay away from the body.
"I asked him why he had done what had had done," The Guardian quoted her as saying. "He said he had killed the man because he [the victim] was a British soldier who killed Muslim women and children in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was furious about the British Army being over there."
She told The Daily Telegraph that the suspected terrorist was "in full control of his decisions" and did not appear to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
When the man told him he was going to kill police when they arrived, she asked him if that was reasonable and tried to keep him engaged.
Then she spoke to the other attacker, who she described as quiet and shy.
"I asked him if he wanted to give me what he was holding in his hand, which was a knife, but I didn't want to say that," she said. "He didn't agree and I asked him: `Do you want to carry on?' He said: `No, no, no.' I didn't want to upset him," she is quoted as saying in The Guardian.
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 re-boarded her bus shortly before police arrived, watching from the vehicle as police shot and wounded the two unidentified suspects, who are both receiving treatment in the hospital.
"The officers shot them in the legs, I think" she told The Guardian.
The British government's COBRA emergency committee met Thursday after Prime Minister David Cameron said there were "strong indications" it was an act of terrorism, and two other officials said there were signs the attack was motivated by radical Islam.
One of the attackers went on video to explain the crime -- shouting political statements, gesturing with bloodied hands and waving a meat cleaver.
Images from the scene showed a blue car that appeared to have been used in the attack, its hood crushed and rammed into a signpost on a sidewalk that was smeared with blood. A number of weapons -- including butchers' knives, a machete and a meat cleaver -- were strewn on the street.
Footage -- obtained by ITV news and The Sun newspaper -- showed a man in a dark jacket and knit cap walking toward a camera, clutching a meat cleaver and a knife. Speaking in English with a British accent, he apologized that female passers-by "have had to witness this" barbarity, saying that "in our land our women have to see the same."
He gave no indication what that land was 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.
"We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you," the man declared. "We must fight them as they fight us." The camera then panned away to show a body lying on the ground.
Scotland Yard confirmed that counterterrorism officers were leading an investigation into the attack. Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said the two men had been arrested and urged Londoners to remain calm. Both men were hospitalized, one in serious condition.
Late Wednesday, riot police fanned out in Woolwich as about 50 men waving the flag of the far-right English Defense League gathered, singing nationalistic songs and shouting obscenities about the Quran.
Britain has been at the heart of several terror attacks or plots in recent years, the most deadly being the 2005 rush-hour suicide bombings when 52 commuters were killed. More recently, Parviz Khan was convicted in 2008 of plotting to kidnap and behead a British Muslim soldier in Birmingham.
Some extremists have lashed out at Britain's involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq. Recently, groups have also criticized Britain's assistance in the French-led mission to Mali to root out Islamic extremists in the north.
Click here for more from The Daily Telegraph.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
