London attacker was not on radar during Saudi stints

CAIRO: London attacker Khalid Masood spent time in Saudi Arabia between 2005 and 2015 but was not on the radar of the country’s security services, the Saudi Embassy in the British capital said.

Masood, who killed four people in a rampage in London this week, worked in Saudi Arabia from November 2005 to November 2006 and from April 2008 to April 2009 as an English teacher, the embassy said late on Friday.

Masood also went to Saudi Arabia in March 2015 for a pilgrimage to Islamic holy sites, it added.

“During his time in Saudi Arabia, Khalid Masood was not on the security services’ radar and does not have a criminal record in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” the embassy said on Twitter.

The embassy expressed the country’s willingness to cooperate with Britain “in any way” to assist its investigation into Wednesday’s attack.

Masood, 52, drove a car into pedestrians on central London’s Westminster Bridge before going after officers with a knife. He killed three people, including one officer, before being shot dead.

A fourth person, a 75-year-old man, died on Thursday in hospital.

One day after the attack, the IS extremist group claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was part of an effort to target countries that are part of a US-led military alliance fighting the organisation.

British police said Masood had used several aliases and most recently lived in the city of Birmingham in the West Midlands.

— Reuters A woman adds a flower to the tributes at the fence surrounding the House of Parliament, following the attack in Westminster earlier in the week, in London, on Saturday.