TERRORISTS’ NEW WEAPON:
EVER since 86 people were massacred in a lorry attack in Nice last summer, Britain has been on high alert for terrorists using vehicles as weapons of mass murder.
Yesterday’s atrocity in London fits into the same grim pattern of recent terror incidents where vehicles were used to kill.
The threat was again underlined in December, when an Islamic State jihadist ploughed a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 and wounding 56.
Just weeks later, four Israeli soldiers were mown down and killed by a truck while on a sight-seeing tour in Jerusalem.
The killers were all shot dead – at the scene or a short time afterwards.
IS has long been actively encouraging would-be jihadis to use vehicles and knives in sudden attacks.
Drummer Lee Rigby was knocked unconscious when his two killers ran him down in a car in Woolwich, south London, in May 2013. He was then stabbed to death.
Raffaello Pantucci, director of security studies at the Royal United Services Institute, predicted a rise in rampaging vehicle attacks after the Berlin killings.
He said yesterday: “It’s always been the case that going out and getting a car or a knife is far easier than building a device like a bomb.
“Incidents such as Lee Rigby are examples of this.”
Mr Pantucci added: “Using a car and a knife, it is something that IS would do.
“But that doesn’t mean other terrorists couldn’t use the same methods.”
Britain’s threat level has been “severe” – meaning an attack is highly likely – since July 2007 following abortive attacks in Glasgow and London’s West End.
In the past four years, MI5 and police have thwarted at least 13 plots but experts say it is “sadly not surprising” that an attacker has slipped through the net.
Sudden “lone wolf” attacks, like the murder of Drummer Rigby, are particularly difficult to prevent, it was suggested.
Mr Pantucci said: “If you haven’t told anyone what you are doing, police are going to find it harder to stop you.
“But what is worrying is a trend of lone wolves who carry out the attacks alone, but gain ideas or weapons from other terrorists before they do so.”
Last Saturday, a suspected terrorist was shot dead at Orly airport in Paris when he tried to grab a machine gun from a female soldier.
Mr Pantucci added: “Obviously, we are on high alert, but we have been on high alert for some time. What has been happening with banning laptops on planes makes that clear.”
Reflecting on the reaction of the police, Mr Pantucci said: “From what we have seen it appears the police shut down the operation very quickly.
“It could be that more bollards are placed outside Parliament to prevent this sort of thing happening again, but it is difficult to know when to stop putting bollards in.”
The Henry Jackson Society, a policy think-tank, confirmed the view that car or truck attacks by
terrorists armed with knives are likely to increase.
A statement from the society said: “In recent years, there has been an increase in both vehicular attacks and the use of knives during terrorist attacks on the West.
“The Islamic State has specifically encouraged its followers to use these methods.
“These attacks are difficult for security services to prevent, as the weapons do not need specialist skills to assemble.”
The society’s executive director Dr Alan Mendoza said: “Islamic State has been inciting and directing attacks of this kind on the West for two years.
“These are very difficult for the security services to stop, particularly if it transpires that the attacker had no direct organisational connection.”
Security expert Will Geddes said battle-hardened jihadists returning from Iraq or Syria were a great concern for the authorities. But attacks like yesterday’s atrocity can be carried out by fanatics without any training, he added.
Mr Geddes said: “Obviously with the method of attack, a low-tech attack which uses a gun or knife and a car, it is highly likely this attacker knew they were going to die. Lone wolves usually know they are either going to kill themselves or die as a result of their actions.”
As they face significant military setbacks in Syria, IS is likely to encourage random, lone attacks against the West, he suggested.
Mr Geddes added: “Their propaganda machine is failing, their numbers are falling and they are unable to get as much air time as they used to. They are old news in effect.
“As far as they are concerned 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 is a marketing campaign.
“It’s a symbolic attack and they want to draw as much attention as possible to themselves.”