Britain is to pay silent homage tomorrow to the 52 victims of the 2005 London bombings, with thoughts inevitably also turning to the 30 Britons killed in Tunisia last month in a horrific reminder of the threat from Muslim militants.
In the 10 years between the two attacks, Britain has beefed up anti-terror legislation and stepped up its emergency preparedness, but the number of fighters traveling to join jihadists has multiplied.
The four suicide bombers of July 7, 2005, who killed 52 people, said they were inspired by al-Qaeda, while the Tunisian gun massacre of June 26 in which 38 tourists died was claimed by the Islamic State, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
Photo: AP
A wreath is to be laid in front of a memorial in London’s Hyde Park to the victims of the attacks on the city’s transport system ahead of a religious service in St Paul’s Cathedral to mark the 10th anniversary, with families of the victims and survivors expected to take part.
The country is observe a minute’s silence tomorrow at 10:30am after having made the same gesture on Friday in honor of its latest victims of terror.
The July 7 ringleader Mohammed Sidique Khan, a father-of-one whose parents were immigrants from Pakistan, was angry at British foreign policy in Iraq and said he wanted to avenge the deaths of fellow Muslims.
Khan’s suicide video was widely broadcast and left a scar in the national consciousness, with many Britons shocked at hearing jihadist slogans from the mouth of a young man with a recognizable hometown accent from his native Yorkshire.
John Tulloch, a British-Australian man who was on the train targeted by Khan, remembers the moments after the blast: “The darkness, smoke, glass everywhere.”
There were “horrifically wounded people right next to me, the dead young man spreadeagled at my feet,” he told reporters.
The physical pain endures from the shrapnel lodged in his head but more painful still are the images that still form “a frightening tapestry of memory.”
To overcome the trauma, Tulloch started writing about the attacks and the war on terror, and he learned to live with the idea of having narrowly escaped death.
Once the initial shock of the attacks passed, London prepared to minimize the risks of a repeat attack.
July 7 “changed the whole landscape for UK counter-terrorism strategy,” King’s College Centre for Defence Studies academic Hugo Rosemont said.
The emphasis has been on countering radicalization but also improving the effectiveness of the emergency services, which were criticized for delays in 2005.
However, the threat has evolved and jihadist attacks like the one in Tunisia risk inspiring copycat action in Western countries, Rosemont said.
British Prime Minister David Cameron’s administration passed a Counter Terrorism and Security Bill earlier this year that includes measures to disrupt travel plans of British extremists.
It is also planning to strengthen its legislative arsenal with a new law that would force mobile phone operators and Internet providers to hand over data about their customers to the police.
However, the law, dubbed a “Snoopers’ Charter” by the British media, risks sparking outrage from those concerned about the power of the secret services following revelations about the US National Security Agency.
“This is a government that needs to be restrained, not rewarded with unrestrained and greater reach into our lives,” Privacy International executive director Gus Hosein said.
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