Lone wolf, low-tech, high terror
SIMILAR TO FRENCH, GERMAN PLOTS
The terror attack that left four innocent people dead and 20 injured came a year to the day since the ISIL suicide bombers killed more than 30 people in Brussels and bore striking similarities to atrocities in France and Germany.
The attacker drove a grey 4x4 along Westminster Bridge, repeatedly swerving into groups of pedestrians before crashing into railings.
It comes amid concerns that terrorists are increasingly resorting to “low-tech” attacks to inflict maximum damage because of the difficulty of obtaining guns and bombs.
In July last year dozens of people were killed when a truck plowed into a large crowd watching fireworks in Nice on the Bastille Day holiday. Months later an attacker drove a lorry into a crowded Christmas market in central Berlin, killing several people and injuring dozens more.
Both ISIL and al Qaeda have previously urged followers to use vehicles to carry out attacks.
In January former terror laws watchdog David Anderson spoke of a “realization on the part of the terrorists that they don’t need sophisticated explosives plots to take great numbers of lives.” He added: “People are using automatic weapons, heavy goods vehicles, even knives, machetes, and securing all the publicity they could possibly want from deploying relatively simple weapons such as that.”
The latest intelligence assessments suggested that this was the most likely form of attack that Britain would suffer, and the quick response of police and other security forces kept the casualty toll to a minimum.
Scotland Yard counter-terror chief Mark Rowley said this month that police were concerned about “everything from fairly simple attacks with knives or using vehicles all the way through to the more complex firearms attacks.”
Security services and police will be starting to piece together the possible motivations behind the attack, but the location — the heart of British democracy — will be seen as highly significant.
Will Geddes, chief executive of International Corporate Protection, said: “Obviously the method of attack — a low-tech attack which uses a gun or knife and a car — (means) it is highly likely this attacker knew
IT’S A SYMBOLIC ATTACK TO DRAW AS MUCH ATTENTION AS POSSIBLE TO THEMSELVES.
they were going to die. There is every chance it will be an ISIL lone wolf.”
Geddes suggested that the attacks show ISIL’s influence is waning.
He said: "Their propaganda machine is failing, their numbers are falling and they are unable to get as much airtime as they used to. They have got to do something which is going to make the whole world turn round.
“The Houses of Parliament is a target that they know will draw the attention of the international media. It’s a symbolic attack to draw as much attention as possible to themselves.”