This morning, July 7th in London was "a callous attack deliberately designed to kill and injure innocent members of the public," as succinctly stated by Officer Brian Paddock of the British Metropolitan Police. This morning’s attack on the British Transit Authority (affecting both bus and trains ~ see later in article for details), appears at present to be the largest terrorist attack that the city of London has ever seen.
At present nobody has claimed responsibility. However, reports note that chatter was up on the Internet among Al Queda supportive groups celebrating the attacks, noting that Britains, like other infidels would not be "safe from God even in their castles" or anywhere else apparently. This does not mean that Al Qaeda, however, is claiming responsibility, only that extremist groups are celebrating the attack.
The attack does have "all the hallmarks of Al Qaeda, reported Channel 7, yet again, no group has officially claimed responsibility. Many sites indicate this as what the media is calling "A day of celebration" for Islamist extremist groups. "Al Qaeda Jihad" is claiming responsibility, though this again is difficult to confirm as the news is changing hourly at this time. As I write this now, the news reports that there is "no claim for this attack," so the news is clearly ever-changing as of this writing. Should confirmaton come in, then we'll note that here.
In all, the most authoritative speculation tells us there were four explosives, yet to be identified as to what type and whether r not these were suicide attacks that went off in the following stations, and this will be updated as news comes in:
Near Liverpool Street-8:51 a.m.
Kings Cross- - between Russell Square and Kings Cross.8:56 a.m.
Edgeware Road - at 9:17 a.m.
Woburn Square - at 9:47 a.m.
Upper Travistock - time not noted in this press conference.
In all, four bombs went off, three on rails and one on a double-decker bus, blowing the top of the bus clean off. Some authorities speculate that the bus-bomb, at least, may well have been the work of a suicide bomber or is the most likely to have been the work of a suicide bomber.
Article comments
1 - theSliver
It's extremely serious but it isn't the largest attack. In the past IRA attacks in London tended to be against infrastructure and attempted to shut down the City of London, there was a series of bombs that forced the Police to prevent traffic moving through the City at all.
The bombs placed in Warrington probably caused greater panic, they were out in the open and calculated to cause death and injury to those fleeing from one bomb and into the path of another.
Then there was the Birmingham pub bombing, a single bomb in a single room but it caused tremendous loss.
And then of course there was the Omagh bombing.
We've been bombed before and the ways we should respond are the same ways we did before, vigilance and not panic.
The nature of these today were different but from the locations chosen they appear to be hastily organised and poorly coordinated. Bombing tube trains is going to cause fewer casualties than bombing suburban trains, such as happened in Madrid, if only because the carriages are well separated.
The events today show that you can't prevent anyone from blowing anything up if they're determined and they don't care what happens to them, but it also shows how well security forces have constrained terrorist groups and how well the planned the emergency contingency planning went and how well it was carried out.
There will be a few days of hiatus but I expect that Londoners will be working almost normally by the middle of next week. It isn't as if tube closures are unknown already.
2 - theSliver
Most of the Underground is planned to be open tomorrow after the entire network and all trains are checked.
3 - sadi
dear Silver ~
Hey and thanks for the infor.
I was simply reporting what Channel 7 was reporting at the time, so the news kept changing (the danger of trusting sources, though they seemed reliable).
I remember most of the bombings you mention because i am a U.K citiizen and was right there in central london for most of the IRA bombs and my grand mother worked at the central postoffice which was often a big target, so that's another factor. plus, we had a lot of trouble in our own neighborhood w/ the skinhead riiots in the 70s (different thing, but worth noting as it was quite traumatic).
Your information is appreciated and no doubt, i will be writing an updated version later today (if my computer keeps working) Ih've had system crashes all day.... alas.
so that's the news...
I think i'll have to trust the BBC and not Channel 7, so thereyou have it. but early this morning that was what they reported though yes, it seemed suspect to me as well. Perhaps they meant the biggest "organized" or "string of"???? i can't speak for them.... but i did trust the source and for that i am sorry.
your informaton is much appreciated. i hope the rest of the informaton is reliable as it came directly from sources inj Great Britian such as the Chief of Police and transportaton etc etc... but if you are there and know otherwise, do let me know. I have family there still and thank god, all are okay... but am still worried.
my heart and prayers with anyone and everyone directly affected by this and to all fellow UK citizens the world over. this hearts the heart.... or it does mine.
yes, we'll get back to business as usual. that is what we do. what else can anyone do? so, we do the best... thus the title of this piece taken from a quote by one of the major police chiefs investigating these attacks.
thanks again and be well,
sadi ranson-polizzotti
4 - theSliver
I wasn't criticising the reporting just offering some perspective. I was at a client's in the morning (where peculiarly we had a fire alarm at about 10am) and none of us knew anything about it until about midday.
It was still all very confused until late afternoon when it became clear that there were 4 bombs and that although large the loss of life wasn't as catastrophic as feared.
There have been scares in the Midlands that I've heard of today, Coventry Bus Station was shut for a time and Hagley Road Birmingham (a main arterial route) was shut for a time, whether just for a normal traffic incident or something else I haven't discovered.
During the Evening News, the BBC News departments and studios, radio and TV, were evacuated as there was a suspect bus outside Television Centre, once it was cleared the bulletin resumed.
5 - sadi
i heard some of that, but that certain station would have busing only, such as anywhere after Picaddilly they were saying this moring... are they still saying that? anyone know?
curious.
6 - sadi
hi silver:
never took it that way, so no worries: sorry to hear you were there; i'm fortuante to be in the US at the moment, though this does not help with family concerns obviously. I suppose i'll just keep following and see what happens.
interesting about the BBC ~ i've been dong some writing for them and hadn't heard that yet, but again have been having some technical troubles today.
thanks for sharing all of your informaton, personal and otherwise. You've been a great help and i've already updated my story and once i can post again, i will... for now, i'm sort of stuck because of computer issues, but thanks... am grateful.
be safe ~~ give my love to home.
sadi.
7 - theSliver
Oh, I'm nowhere near it. It was pure coincidence the fire alarm went off.
8 - Temple Stark
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