On May 22, 2017, Salman Abedi detonated an improvised explosive device in the foyer of Manchester Arena, killing 22 people 10 of them were under 20 years old. Masood then took two carving knives out of his vehicle and stabbed police officer Keith Palmer, killing him outside of Parliament. On March 22, 2017, for example, British-born Khalid Masood drove a sports utility vehicle into pedestrians crossing Westminster Bridge in London, killing three people. 4 Most of these plots were inspired by the Islamic State and its ideology, rather than directed by Islamic State operatives. 3 Between December 2013 and May 2018, British intelligence and law enforcement agencies thwarted 25 plots from extreme Islamic groups. 2 There were also more terrorist-related arrests in the UK in 2017 than in any previous year since 2001. According to data from the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation, there were more failed, foiled, and completed attacks in the United Kingdom than anywhere else in the European Union in 2017. The United Kingdom’s recently-published counterterrorism strategy, CONTEST, argues that the country faces a significant, multidimensional threat from terrorists. UK security agencies have conditioned their public to be prepared for plots and attacks. And Khater failed to kill anyone, though he did injure several people. His tiny Ford Fiesta was no match for the barriers around the Houses of Parliament that are designed to stop attacks from 18-wheelers. He had been meandering around London for several hours, which suggests that the incident was not carefully planned. Terrorists in the West have increasingly resorted to simple tactics, such as vehicles and knives, to kill civilians.Ĭompared to previous incidents in the United Kingdom, Salih Khater’s August 14 attack was second-rate. “The car went on to the wrong side of the road to where cyclists were waiting at lights and ploughed into them.” 1 The tactic-a vehicle used as a weapon-is all too familiar. “I heard lots of screams and turned round,” remarked Barry Williams. He drove a silver Ford Fiesta into a crowd of pedestrians and cyclists in London and then crashed it into a security barrier outside the Houses of Parliament. The attacker was Salih Khater, a UK citizen from Birmingham who was in his late twenties. Perhaps the most significant lesson from the London attack, however, is the resilience of the British public. policymakers that terrorist groups have been defeated. The United States continues to face a threat from right-wing, left-wing, and Islamic extremists, despite comments from some U.S. The August 14 attack in London is the latest reminder that terrorism persists in the West more than a decade and a half after September 11, 2001. Londoners were hardly bothered, living up to the UK government’s World War II campaign to “Keep Calm and Carry On.” Perhaps the most notable lesson from the attack, however, was local resilience. The tactic-a vehicle attack-fits a growing pattern of simple attacks in Europe and the United States using cars, trucks, knives, and easily-accessible items. On August 14, Salih Khater ploughed his Ford Fiesta into pedestrians and cyclists near the Houses of Parliament in downtown London, wounding several of them.
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