Britain and Jihadism: What does the Third Terrorist Attack in less than Three Months Tell Us?

The third terrorist attack in a row hitting Britain in less than three month resulted in the deaths of seven people, leaving some 48 more injured. This time terrorists adopted the same strategy that was used in the attack of March 22, running a vehicle into a crowd, then attacking more people with knives later on. The minibus hit pedestrians in the London Bridge area, which connects the city with the Southwark area on the right bank. Once the car stopped in the area of a major tourist attraction – the Boro Market, terrorists decided to use large hunting knives in an attempt to kill more people.

Yet, this time this wasn’t a lone wolf attack, as a total of three suspects were involved in the attack.

Undoubtedly, the British government, and Teresa May personally, are bound to give an explanation as to what caused this wave of terrorism in the United Kingdom, and how British intelligence services could have missed it.

Some would rightfully claim that the weight of responsibility for the ongoing terrorist mayhem in Britain resides on the shoulders of Theresa May, who occupied the position of Home Secretary for six years prior to becoming Prime Minister, so she had every opportunity to introduce mechanisms that would make the fight against terrorism effective both inside the country and abroad, finding partners in other states in a bid to achieve this stated goal. However, instead of doing her job, she clearly preferred to become heavily engaged in political games, jumping onto Washington’s bandwagon of Russophobic accusations instead of cooperating with Russia in its own ongoing fight against terrorism.

In addition, it is necessary to get some kind of explanation from the government of Therese May whether the level of the terrorist threat across the country will again be raised to the maximum, critical level. After all, the crimes on the London Bridge and at the Boro Market were committed after the Prime Minister announced that the level of terrorist threat was reduced.

This recent terrorist attack was the second in London and the third in the UK in less than three months. The first of the attacks occurred in Westminster, the government district of London, on March 22. UK law enforcement agencies shot the attacker dead only after he managed to kill five people and leave several dozens more wounded.

The second crime was an explosion in the Manchester Arena stadium, which occurred late in the evening on May 22 once a concert performed by American singer Ariana Grande ended. This explosion claimed the lives of 22 people and left another 75 injured.

Special attention in this regard should drawn to the targeted actions of the British police officers that seem kin to physically eliminate the attackers each time. It’s possible that law enforcement agencies in the UK are equipped worse than those in the poorest nations having absolutely no non-lethal means of capturing criminals. If not, then why can’t they simply subdue the attackers in order to thoroughly interrogate them later on and clarify all the circumstances of the attacks?

Or maybe the current UK government and the British special services are not really all that interested in receiving such information, since they already know who is behind these despicable crimes?

As it’s been noted by Al Jazeera reporter Alastair Sloan, those who executed the Manchester terrorist act traveled to Libya before carrying it out. The journalist would point out:

There have been few decisions by the British government this century as damaging as those that laid the groundwork for the Manchester bombings.During Gaddafi’s reign, Britain’s foreign intelligence agency, MI6, sponsored a group of mujahideen who had recently fought in Afghanistan against the Soviets. They were to assassinate Gaddafi himself. The Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) was allegedly given $160,000 for a failed assassination attempt in February 1996, in which several bodyguards were killed. MI6 had strange bedfellows while they propped up the group – Osama bin Laden was also reportedly financing the group at the time.

Or maybe the sitting British government is unaware of how the working capital of Britain – Al-Birmingham, turned into veritable nest for terrorists even though these facts have been extensively reported by a number of sources, including across the British media?

Or maybe the British government was so busy following Washington’s orders it had no time or resources to strengthen the nation’s own security. Why did the government fail to act on “revelations” that were made by a childhood friend of the terrorist who committed the Manchester attack, Salman Abedi, in an interview with Sky News, saying there’s a radical group that is engaged in “brainwashing” activities across the UK?

Yes, there are too many questions one can demand answers to from the British government, but the most important one is whether they should be trusted with the authority to rule the country after the general election. 

Jean Périer is an independent researcher and analyst and a renowned expert on the Near and Middle East, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”