Woolwich attack prompts fears of backlash

Dubai: Prime Minister David Cameron said yesterday’s killing of a soldier in London by two men wielding knives and meat cleavers was a “betrayal of Islam” as the police probe into the murder widened to eastern England.

“There is nothing in Islam that justifies this truly dreadful act,” Cameron told reporters outside his London office today after a meeting of the Cabinet’s emergency committee, the second in less than 24 hours. The blame “lies purely with the sickening individuals who carried out this attack.”

The victim was attacked just after 2 pm yesterday outside a military barracks in Woolwich, southeast London, the capital’s Metropolitan Police said. When officers arrived at the scene, they shot, wounded and arrested two armed men. Police searched a house in Lincolnshire as part of the probe, which is being conducted by the Met’s counter-terrorism command, spokeswomen for the London and Lincolnshire forces said.

Video footage broadcast by ITV News showed a black man, his hands covered in blood and holding a cleaver and a knife, speaking after the attack. “We must fight them as they fight us,” he said in a London accent. “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Your people will never be safe. Remove your government, they don’t care about you.” The man apologized that women had to witness the incident. “In our lands, our women see the same,” he said.

Cameron warned against “knee-jerk responses” to the attack, following UK media reports of unrest in the Woolwich area last night sparked by members of the English Defence League, which campaigns against immigration.

“What happened yesterday in Woolwich has sickened us all,” Cameron said. “On our televisions last night - and in our newspapers this morning - we have all seen images that are deeply shocking. The people who did this were trying to divide us. They should know: something like this will only bring us together and make us stronger.”

London police said in a statement that while the soldier’s next of kin has been identified, his name won’t be released at this time in line with the family’s wishes.

.Britain’s Press Association newswire said the property being search in Eastern England was in Saxilby, close to the city of Lincoln. A home in Greenwich, near the attacks, was also searched and four people were taken away by police, the BBC reported.

The BBC and other UK media identified one of the suspects as Michael Adebolajo. The Independent newspaper reported today that Adebolajo was known to a banned Islamist organization, Al Muhajiroun, which favors sharia law and publicly celebrated the Sept. 11 bombings in the U.S. He went by the name of “Mujahid” — a Muslim engaged in holy war - up until two years ago, Anjem Choudary, the former leader of the group, was cited as saying by the newspaper. No charges have been filed by police.

It’s the first actual, rather than planned, attack in Britain investigated as a possible act of terrorism since July 7, 2005. Fifty-two people were killed when four Islamist suicide bombers set off explosions on underground trains and a bus in central London during the morning rush hour.

Security was tightened at Woolwich and other London barracks, Cameron’s office said last night. There was no announcement from the Home Office of any change to the terror threat level in the U.K. following the incident.

‘No Man’

“They weren’t trying to get away,” Joe Tallant, an eyewitness, told the BBC. “They could have easily got away. They was just walking round the body like they wanted the police to come and get them. One of the guys said: ‘No man is coming near this body, only women.’ Then he was telling people to call the police.”

Women were allowed to try to help the victim, Tallant said.

This morning’s emergency meeting discussed “community cohesion,” Cameron’s office said. “The strength and unity of response from Muslim community leaders was recognized and commended by ministers and others around the table,” according to the statement.

“One of the best ways of defeating terrorism is to go about our normal lives,” Cameron said. “And that is what we shall all do.”

— compiled from agencies