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| Cameron Moves to Calm Fears After Attack on Soldier | Cameron Moves to Calm Fears After Attack on Soldier |
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| LONDON — One day after a fatal and gruesome attack on an off-duty soldier by two knife-wielding assailants, Prime Minister David Cameron on Thursday moved to calm fears of a wider increase in terrorism, saying that Britain would be “absolutely resolute” in confronting militants and that extremist assaults would only “bring us together.” | LONDON — One day after a fatal and gruesome attack on an off-duty soldier by two knife-wielding assailants, Prime Minister David Cameron on Thursday moved to calm fears of a wider increase in terrorism, saying that Britain would be “absolutely resolute” in confronting militants and that extremist assaults would only “bring us together.” |
| Coming almost eight years after Britain’s worst terror attack, when four suicide bombers killed 52 people in central London in July 2005, the attack on Wednesday, by two men identified as Britons with links to Nigeria, jarred a nation that had felt relatively secure since the authorities thwarted several successive conspiracies and brought suspects to trial. | Coming almost eight years after Britain’s worst terror attack, when four suicide bombers killed 52 people in central London in July 2005, the attack on Wednesday, by two men identified as Britons with links to Nigeria, jarred a nation that had felt relatively secure since the authorities thwarted several successive conspiracies and brought suspects to trial. |
| The attack, by assailants armed with weapons including a meat cleaver, took place in broad daylight, and was all the more shocking because the men were known to the security services as potential militants, British media outlets reported, raising questions about how closely they had been monitored. | The attack, by assailants armed with weapons including a meat cleaver, took place in broad daylight, and was all the more shocking because the men were known to the security services as potential militants, British media outlets reported, raising questions about how closely they had been monitored. |
| Speaking to reporters at 10 Downing Street, Mr. Cameron would not confirm or deny the reports. “You would not expect me to comment on this when a criminal investigation is ongoing,” he said. | Speaking to reporters at 10 Downing Street, Mr. Cameron would not confirm or deny the reports. “You would not expect me to comment on this when a criminal investigation is ongoing,” he said. |
| On Thursday, Britain’s Ministry of Defense identified the dead soldier as Lee Rigby, 25, a ceremonial military drummer and machine gunner with a unit known as the Corps of Drums who joined the army in 2006 and served in Britain, Cyprus, Germany and, in 2009, in Helmand Province in Afghanistan. Most recently, he had worked with a recruiting post and at the Tower of London. The ministry said he had a 2-year-old son. | |
| The BBC quoted unnamed sources as identifying one of the suspects as Michael Adebolajo, 28, who had converted to Islam after leaving college in 2001. He had been raised in a devout Christian family and was considered “bright and witty” in college. | The BBC quoted unnamed sources as identifying one of the suspects as Michael Adebolajo, 28, who had converted to Islam after leaving college in 2001. He had been raised in a devout Christian family and was considered “bright and witty” in college. |
| Immediately after the attack, which took place in the Woolwich area of south London, one of the assailants gave an impromptu and macabre interview to a passer-by in a cellphone video; Mr. Rigby’s body can be seen lying in the street nearby. In the video, the assailant — believed to be Mr. Adebolajo, according to the BBC — said he had carried out the attack because British soldiers were killing Muslims overseas every day, an apparent reference to the international military mission in Afghanistan. | |
| The BBC account said one of the two suspects was “intercepted” by the police last year while he was preparing to leave Britain, but did not explain why. The sources were also quoted as saying that it was “not accurate” to say, as some broadcast accounts in Britain suggested, that both suspects had featured in several investigations in recent years. | The BBC account said one of the two suspects was “intercepted” by the police last year while he was preparing to leave Britain, but did not explain why. The sources were also quoted as saying that it was “not accurate” to say, as some broadcast accounts in Britain suggested, that both suspects had featured in several investigations in recent years. |
| Mr. Rigby, who was not in uniform as he walked near a military barracks, was rammed by a car, according to witness accounts in British media, and then hacked to death, with some witnesses saying he was beheaded. One of his attackers shouted “God is great” during the attack, government officials said. | |
| Britain has suffered more than any other country in Northern Europe from Islamic terrorist plots in recent years, and has worked assiduously to prevent more. Security officials have said that at any given time they are tracking hundreds of young men in extremist networks. | Britain has suffered more than any other country in Northern Europe from Islamic terrorist plots in recent years, and has worked assiduously to prevent more. Security officials have said that at any given time they are tracking hundreds of young men in extremist networks. |
| But small-scale attacks like Wednesday’s can be hard to prevent, and it raised worries about a new style of terrorism involving direct assaults on individuals rather than bombings of buildings or airplanes. The SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadi Web sites, distributed a posting from one on Wednesday after the London killing. Dating from July 2011, the message on Shumukh al-Islam, a militant Web site that has been linked to Al Qaeda, urges followers to mount “lone-wolf operations” that might include beheadings. | But small-scale attacks like Wednesday’s can be hard to prevent, and it raised worries about a new style of terrorism involving direct assaults on individuals rather than bombings of buildings or airplanes. The SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadi Web sites, distributed a posting from one on Wednesday after the London killing. Dating from July 2011, the message on Shumukh al-Islam, a militant Web site that has been linked to Al Qaeda, urges followers to mount “lone-wolf operations” that might include beheadings. |
| Nigeria has a large Muslim population and has been wrestling with Islamic militancy and homegrown terror groups that have links with Al Qaeda. But there was no immediate suggestion that the men had ties to Boko Haram, a prominent militant group locked in a fierce contest with the Nigerian military. | Nigeria has a large Muslim population and has been wrestling with Islamic militancy and homegrown terror groups that have links with Al Qaeda. But there was no immediate suggestion that the men had ties to Boko Haram, a prominent militant group locked in a fierce contest with the Nigerian military. |
| Police officers, who said they arrived on the scene within 14 minutes, shot and wounded the suspects. They were taken to separate hospitals under police guard, one in serious condition. The hunt for clues about the motives and background of the assailants triggered a broad dragnet, the police said, with officers in Lincolnshire, 150 miles north of London, searching a house in the town of Saxilby. | |
| “The people who did this were trying to divide us,” Mr. Cameron told reporters outside 10 Downing Street after a meeting of the high-level Cobra national security committee. “They should know something like this will only bring us together and make us stronger.” | “The people who did this were trying to divide us,” Mr. Cameron told reporters outside 10 Downing Street after a meeting of the high-level Cobra national security committee. “They should know something like this will only bring us together and make us stronger.” |
| “This view is shared by every community in our country. This was not just an attack on Britain and on the British way of life, it was also a betrayal of Islam and of the Muslim communities who give so much to our country.” | “This view is shared by every community in our country. This was not just an attack on Britain and on the British way of life, it was also a betrayal of Islam and of the Muslim communities who give so much to our country.” |
| A statement on Thursday from the Defense Ministry said a number of additional security measures had been put in place, but it did not elaborate. | A statement on Thursday from the Defense Ministry said a number of additional security measures had been put in place, but it did not elaborate. |
| ITV News showed a video taken with a cellphone at the scene in Woolwich in which a man who appears to be in his 20s or early 30s holds a cleaver in one of his bloodied hands. He offers what seems to be a political message before the police arrive. | ITV News showed a video taken with a cellphone at the scene in Woolwich in which a man who appears to be in his 20s or early 30s holds a cleaver in one of his bloodied hands. He offers what seems to be a political message before the police arrive. |
| “I apologize that women had to see this today, but in our lands women have to see the same thing,” he says. “You people will never be safe. Remove your governments! They don’t care about you.” | “I apologize that women had to see this today, but in our lands women have to see the same thing,” he says. “You people will never be safe. Remove your governments! They don’t care about you.” |
| He then refers to what appears to be a motive for the attack, saying it was carried out “because of what’s going on in our own countries.” | He then refers to what appears to be a motive for the attack, saying it was carried out “because of what’s going on in our own countries.” |
| Mayor Boris Johnson of London rejected that argument, saying it was wrong to link the killing with British foreign policy or the actions of Britain’s military, which has been closely allied with the United States in Afghanistan and Iraq. | Mayor Boris Johnson of London rejected that argument, saying it was wrong to link the killing with British foreign policy or the actions of Britain’s military, which has been closely allied with the United States in Afghanistan and Iraq. |
| “The fault lies wholly and exclusively in the warped and deluded mind-set of the people who did it,” he said. | “The fault lies wholly and exclusively in the warped and deluded mind-set of the people who did it,” he said. |
| Organizations representing Britain’s two and a half million Muslims were quick to condemn the attack. “No cause justifies this murder,” the Muslim Council of Britain said in a statement on behalf of the network of mosques, schools and charities it represents. It described the killing as a “barbaric act that has no basis in Islam,” and added that the “vast majority of British Muslims acknowledge the armed forces for the work they do.” | Organizations representing Britain’s two and a half million Muslims were quick to condemn the attack. “No cause justifies this murder,” the Muslim Council of Britain said in a statement on behalf of the network of mosques, schools and charities it represents. It described the killing as a “barbaric act that has no basis in Islam,” and added that the “vast majority of British Muslims acknowledge the armed forces for the work they do.” |
| The assault took place near a busy junction a short walk from the London headquarters of the Royal Artillery, a unit that has deployed soldiers, including tank units, to Iraq and Afghanistan. A primary school is nearby and witnesses said some of those who had seen the attack were parents and children returning home. | The assault took place near a busy junction a short walk from the London headquarters of the Royal Artillery, a unit that has deployed soldiers, including tank units, to Iraq and Afghanistan. A primary school is nearby and witnesses said some of those who had seen the attack were parents and children returning home. |
| A small blue car — apparently the vehicle used to ram the victim — appeared to have hit a telephone pole after mounting the sidewalk. Photographs and television footage from the scene showed extensive damage to the car’s hood and windshield. Witnesses said two men had gotten out of the car and attacked Mr. Rigby with large bladed weapons. | |
| Some said Mr. Rigby had been wearing a T-shirt with the words Help for Heroes, the name of a charity that supports some of the thousands of British military personnel who have returned wounded from Afghanistan and Iraq and the families of the more than 600 servicemen and women who have been killed in those conflicts. | |
| A man who said he had seen the entire attack told the BBC that the assailants had lingered at the scene, talking to passers-by about what they had done. He said a policewoman with a handgun fired at the two suspects after one of them rushed toward a group of police officers. | A man who said he had seen the entire attack told the BBC that the assailants had lingered at the scene, talking to passers-by about what they had done. He said a policewoman with a handgun fired at the two suspects after one of them rushed toward a group of police officers. |
| Other witnesses said a man had leapt from an unmarked car and aimed a handgun at the assailants, shouting to pedestrians to clear the area. | Other witnesses said a man had leapt from an unmarked car and aimed a handgun at the assailants, shouting to pedestrians to clear the area. |
John F. Burns reported from London and Alan Cowell from Paris. Stephen Castle contributed reporting from London. | John F. Burns reported from London and Alan Cowell from Paris. Stephen Castle contributed reporting from London. |