IS CLAIMS UK ATTACK, MAY SAYS ASSAILANT BRITISHBORN
Kentborn Khalid Masood, 52, is believed to have been living most recently in the West Midlands
LONDON: The Islamic State on Thursday claimed responsibility for the terror attack in Westminster village that left four dead, 29 injured, and the heart of Britain’s political establishment shocked but determined to “keep calm and carry on”.
Amaq, the news agency used by IS to broadcast propaganda, said the group was responsible for Wednesday’s attack that saw the attacker ploughing a car through people on Westminster Bridge and later trying to enter the houses of Parliament.
It called the attacker, whom UK police identified as 52-yearold Khalid Masood, “a soldier of Islamic State”.
Scotland Yard said Masood was born in Kent and was believed to have been living in the West Midlands most recently. Masood was also known by a number of aliases, police said.
He was not the subject of any current investigations and there was no prior intelligence about his intent to mount a terrorist attack.
However, he was known to police and had a range of convictions for assaults, including grievous bodily harm, possession of offensive weapons and public order offences.
His first conviction was in November 1983 for criminal damage and his last in December 2003 for possession of a knife.
He had not been convicted for any terrorism offences.
Earlier, Prime Minister Theresa May had told the House of Commons that the assailant was known to intelligence services, was born in Britain, and had been previously investigated by MI5 in relation to terrorism.
May called him a “peripheral figure” who was not on the radar in recent times. May also revealed that eight people had been arrested in overnight raids in London and Birmingham. Some reports said the car used by the attacker was hired in Birmingham, where raids were carried out. There were also raids at some addresses in London.
MPs paid moving tributes to police officer Keith Palmer, who died after being stabbed several times, as May said the threat level from international terrorism will remain at the secondhighest level of ‘severe’.
She confirmed that the attack was related to Islamist terrorism: “Our working assumption is that the attacker was inspired by Islamist ideology. We know the threat from Islamist terrorism is very real. But while the public should remain utterly vigilant they should not and will not be cowed by this threat.”
May said those injured included 12 Britons, three French, two Romanians, four South Koreans, one German, one Chinese, one Irish, one Italian, one American and two Greeks.
Striking a defiant note on London and Britain returning to normal, May said: “But the greatest response lies not in the words of politicians, but in the everyday actions of ordinary people .... It is in these actions – millions of acts of normality – that we find the best response to terrorism.”
London mayor Sadiq Khan announced a vigil at Trafalgar Square on Thursday.