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The Libyan man arrested in connection with the multiple stabbings in Reading, which left three people dead, had sought to travel abroad to take part in jihad, according to security sources. The suspect, a 25-year-old Libyan asylum seeker called Khairi Saadallah, came to the attention of the security and intelligence agencies in 2019 when he was seeking to join an Islamist group in the Middle East.
Mr Saadallah was put under surveillance, but the investigation was scaled down when the journey did not take place. He was subsequently jailed after being convicted of a minor crime. The prime minister met with security officials from MI5 and MI6 – senior police officers and ministers and the National Counterterrorism Command will now take over the investigation after it was declared a terrorist incident.
The police say they are looking at information provided by dozens of callers including witnesses to the multiple stabbings. One lead, according to a Whitehall official, concerns Manchester, but it is unclear at present whether this will have any significance.
Mr Saadallah is believed to have arrived in the UK several years ago and had claimed that his family had suffered in the violence which began in the country after the overthrow of the regime of Muammar Gaddafi. Extremist Islamist groups have carried out attacks in Libya as well as neighbouring Tunisia, but it is not known at present whether he had any connection with any of the groups.
The security agencies are also investigating whether Mr Saadallah had been indoctrinated by Islamic extremism. The police are looking at fellow prisoners he may have met while he was said to have been in prison serving a minor, non-terror related sentence. The security agencies are also looking at whether Saadallah was influenced by material online and whether this had taken place during the months of lockdown. One official said it was, at this stage, a possible line of inquiry.
There has been a marked increase in Islamist propaganda online in recent months, while at the same time the number of referrals to the government’s main anti-radicalisation programme, Prevent, have fallen by more than 50 per cent, the largest ever in the 10 years the initiative has been running. Isis communication channels have been urging adherents in the West, including those in the UK, to carry out attacks, because Europe and the US have been weakened and left disorganised by the coronavirus pandemic.
Security officials point to a number of recent terror-related incidents in Europe. Spanish police arrested an alleged Moroccan Isis supporter in Barcelona on the suspicion that he was planning to carry out attacks last month. A 29-year-old man was arrested in Paris last month after attacking two motorcyclists and then declared after being arrested: “I did it for Isis.” A 33-year-old Sudanese man was charged with alleged terrorist offences and murders after the killing of two people in the town of Romans-sur-lsere in southeastern France.
In April, the national coordinator for the Prevent counter-extremism programme told The Independent that Isis supporters were “encouraging people to target the places that appear most vulnerable”.
Chief Superintendent Nik Adams said jihadis were calling for attacks during lockdown in the hope that police and security services would be “distracted and overwhelmed”. “We’re seeing the exploitation of the circumstances to encourage acts of violence,” he added. “We’re becoming more concerned not just about young people spending time online but the impact of isolation, and the changing risk picture.
“My fear is that people have got more opportunity to spend more time in closed echo chambers and online chat forums that reinforce the false narratives, hatred, fear and confusion that could have a radicalising effect. “In the short term there is a lack of statutory services to spot those changes and intervene to protect people.”
Source: The Independent