London warned of Mumbai style attack

Sunday Times:

Scotland Yard has warned businesses in London to expect a Mumbai-style attack on the capital.

In a briefing in the City of London 12 days ago, a senior detective from SO15, the Metropolitan police counter-terrorism command, said: “Mumbai is coming to London.”

The detective said companies should anticipate a shooting and hostage-taking raid “involving a small number of gunmen with handguns and improvised explosive devices”.

The warning — the bluntest issued by police — has underlined an assessment that a terrorist cell may be preparing an attack on London early next year.

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Officials now report an increase in “intelligence chatter” — communications captured by electronic eavesdropping agencies. One senior security adviser said the police warnings had intensified and become much more specific in the past fortnight.

“Before, there has been speculation. Now we are getting what appears to be a definite plot to carry out a firearms attack on London,” he said.

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Security sources said concerns had been raised by “chatter” on a prominent jihadist website two weeks ago.

One contributor suggested fighters could use automatic weapons to strike places such as nightclubs, sporting venues and Jewish centres.

In an online discussion hosted on December 2, another contributor invited suggestions for carrying out “guerrilla warfare” and proposed “a group of mujaheddin raid police stations and fire at them”.

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Attacking the police stations does not make much sense because they are the only ones with guns to defend themselves. Elsewhere in London there would be easy pickings, because no one is permitted to own a handgun much less have concealed carry. If they tried something like this in Houston or Dallas they would quickly find people shooting back at them.

The Mumbai format of mass murder for Allah did not change anyone's mind about radical Islam and if anything it caused less respect for the religion of Islam. Just like 9-11 it was a failure in its strategic purpose regardless of any tactical success of pulling off mass murder on a huge scale.