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Italian of Moroccan Descent Named as Third London Terror Attacker | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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While Londoners have declared their defiance in the face of terror, bunches of flowers piling up point to a city in mourning less than three months since five were killed outside the British parliament in another attack
While Londoners have declared their defiance in the face of terror, bunches of flowers piling up point to a city in mourning less than three months since five were killed outside the British parliament in another attack (AFP Photo/Daniel LEAL-OLIVAS)


Italian of Moroccan Descent Named as Third London Terror Attacker

by | Jun 6, 2017 | World |

Italian of Moroccan Descent Named as Third London Terror Attacker

Police on Tuesday identified the third attacker in the weekend terror assault in London two days before the snap general elections that Prime Minister Theresa May hopes to solidify her position in by winning.

The identification came over mounting anger over how the terrorists had apparently escaped surveillance.

Police named the third attacker as Youssef Zaghba, a 22-year-old Italian of Moroccan descent, a day after naming his accomplices as Khuram Shazad Butt, 27, a Pakistan-born Briton, and Rachid Redouane, 30, a self-described Moroccan-Libyan dual national.

Police also said they had made an overnight raid in east London and arrested a 27-year-old man early Tuesday. Twelve people arrested earlier have since been released.

Butt “was known to the police and MI5” but there was no intelligence to suggest the attack was being planned, the Metropolitan Police said.

Zaghba was “not a police or MI5 subject of interest,” it added, an assertion that seemed to conflict with accounts in the Italian media.

Criticism immediately flared about how Butt was able to carry out the attack.

And according to Italian media reports, Zaghba’s status as a potential militant had been notified to the British and Moroccan secret services.

The London attack follows the May 22 suicide bombing at the Manchester Arena by Salman Abedi — killing 22 people, including children — who was also known to British intelligence services.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson acknowledged the security services had to provide answers.

“People are going to look at the front pages today and they are going to say, ‘How on earth could we have let this guy or possibly more through the net? What happened? How can he possibly be on a Channel 4 program and then committing atrocities like this?’,” Johnson said on Sky News.

“That is a question that will need to be answered by MI5, by the police, as the investigation goes on,” he said.

Prime Minister Theresa May, her language more tenuous, told Sky News: “I absolutely recognize people’s concerns.”

“MI5 and the police have already said they would be reviewing how they dealt with Manchester and I would expect them to do exactly the same in relation to London Bridge,” she said.