Via Reuters: Very likely one London bomber died
Police said on Tuesday they were trying to establish whether four men had blown themselves up in last week’s London explosions in what would be the first suicide attacks in Britain.[…]
He said police had found personal documents with the names of three suspects close to the scene of three of last Thursday’s blasts, which the government says bear the hallmark of al Qaeda-style Islamist militants.
It was “very likely” that one suspect had died in one of the blasts, at Aldgate underground station, Clarke said.
Suicide bombers have never previously struck in Britain, and police played down the possibility of a suicide attack in the days immediately after the blasts.
The four men had traveled to London on the day of the blasts and been captured on closed-circuit television footage at King’s Cross station shortly before 8:30 a.m.
Interesting and frightening. I must confess to wondering why there haven’t been any suicide bombings in Europe or the US to this point.
And also interesting:
The revelations came on a day of fast-moving developments, with police carrying out six searches in Yorkshire, including at the homes of three of the four suspects. One man was arrested in those raids, Clarke said.In the city of Leeds, army experts set off a controlled explosion outside one of the houses to give police access. Detectives said the searches were a “significant” part of their probe into the London attacks.
Some 500 people were evacuated from the surrounding streets of red brick terraced houses and a large area of the rundown, racially mixed area of the city was cordoned off.
Police also seized a vehicle found in a car park at Luton, near London, which they believed was linked to the investigation, Clarke said.
“I have to tell you that this investigation is moving at great speed,” he said.
Hopefully they will crack the case wide open shortly.
I’ve always wondered about this too. If it was just one or two people, it seems like it would be rather difficult to stop.
Comment by Matt — Tuesday, July 12, 2024 @ 1:10 pm
Perhaps the number of susceptible candidates and brainwashers required to convince those candidates to carry out suicide missions isn’t high enough in the west to actually successfully create a suicide bomber until now.
Comment by ATM — Tuesday, July 12, 2024 @ 5:51 pm
The whole 9/11, 3/11, 7/7 naming system is getting on my nerves. It is the war on terrorism equlivant of Watergate, Filegate, Memogate, etc. for evry political issue. Why don’t journalist call it what it is?
7/7 minimizes the impact of what happened, and allows a public, unwilling to face our modern reality, to skim over the headlines and retreat back to lala land.
Then again maybe this only erks me.
Comment by bob — Tuesday, July 12, 2024 @ 8:13 pm
I consider it useful shorthand. 7/7 is easier to type than “The London Subway Bombings”, just as 3/11 is easier than “The Madrid Train Bombings”.
And, quite frankly, 9/11 will always be 9/11.
Comment by Dr. Steven Taylor — Tuesday, July 12, 2024 @ 9:07 pm