Iraqi ‘trained to kill’
AHMED HASSAN denied he was sent to Europe from Iraq by Islamic State, but said they trained him “to kill” ahead of his arrival as an asylum seeker, the Old Bailey heard yesterday.
The 18-year-old, of Sunbury, Surrey, is charged with attempted murder and using the chemical compound TATP to cause an explosion likely to endanger life on September 15 last year. It is alleged he placed an explosive device on a train and at or around Parsons Green train station, London, which partially exploded. He denies the charges. RUSSIAN double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a nerve agent, counter-terror police believe.
Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley, the head of counter-terrorism policing, said the incident was being treated as attempted murder and the pair had been “targeted specifically”.
He declined to specify the nerve agent or how it was administered.
Mr Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia are fighting for their lives in hospital days after being found slumped on a bench in Salisbury, Wiltshire.
A police officer who was among the first on the scene is also in a serious condition and his family are being supported, Mr Rowley said.
He added: “Our role now of course is to establish who is behind this and why they carried out this act.”
Hundreds of detectives, forensic officers and analysts are working on the case, he said.