Netflix's new true crime documentary series, Attack on London: The Hunt for the 7/7 Terrorists, takes a detailed look at what is considered the worst terrorist attack in the UK to date. On a seemingly ordinary day in 2005, a series of explosions rocked the London Underground network, followed by a devastating attack on a public bus, as part of a planned terrorist attack that claimed the lives of 52 innocent people. Attack on London delves into the investigation following this horrific attack, questioning whether MI5 could have done a better job of identifying and even preventing the attack, while also investigating similar attacks attempted just a couple of weeks later.
Attack on London begins with the account of Dan Biddle, an ordinary Londoner whose life changed completely on July 7, 2005. That fateful morning, around a quarter to nine, Dan was aboard a London Underground train, uncomfortable in the heat and the overcrowded carriage. He recalls having an incredibly unlucky and frustrating morning, as he had also missed a stop while trying to send a text message to work saying he would be late. But as the train headed back into the underground tunnels, Dan remembers feeling even more uneasy about the fixed stare of a young man in the carriage. Just as Dan was about to ask this anxious-looking man why he was looking at him so strangely, he reached into his backpack and apparently pressed something, and moments later, the backpack exploded with tremendous force.
The explosion on Dan Biddle's train occurred at 8:49 a.m., but it wasn't the only explosion to rock London that day, or rather, at that precise moment. Three bombs had detonated at that specific time, 8:49 a.m., all on board London Underground trains transporting commuters to their respective workplaces during rush hour. A Circle Line train had been attacked while traveling between Liverpool Street and Aldgate stations. An explosion occurred on another Circle Line train, this time between Edgware Road and Paddington stations. The third bomb exploded on board a Piccadilly Line train traveling from St. Pancras to Russell Square.
In the initial minutes, authorities were unaware of what had happened, and the loud noise of the explosions and the sudden stop of the trains on their tracking screens were believed to be due to a mechanical failure. But as smoke began to rise from the stations, along with panicked passengers on the platforms, it was clear something serious had occurred, and foul play was initially suspected. Some of the passengers on these three trains, such as Dan Biddle, miraculously survived the explosions, to their own surprise and shock, as they found themselves surrounded by bodies. Eventually, as emergency services made their way to the underground tunnels, they located the survivors and rescued them from the wreckage.
Police initially believed that six bombs, not three, had exploded in the London Underground tunnels because survivors from six different trains reported the explosion. In reality, the bombs had been strategically detonated inside the tunnels to ensure that three trains running on parallel tracks would also be affected. As would later be revealed, 39 innocent victims died in the three attacks, but this was not the end of the terrorist attack. About 58 minutes after the attacks on the Underground trains, an explosion occurred on the upper deck of a number 30 London public bus as the vehicle was transporting passengers from Marble Arch to Hackney Wick. Eyewitnesses recall seeing the bus suddenly explode with such force that its roof was blown off as it neared Tavistock Square. 13 innocent victims died instantly in this second attack, and London was on red alert, as the worst terrorist attacks in the country's history had just occurred. Prime Minister Tony Blair, who was at the G8 summit in Scotland, was immediately informed and warned that London was likely the target of a direct attack orchestrated by terrorists.
The multi-site terrorist attack sparked panic in the city, and thousands of Londoners began fleeing by car, both to the countryside and other cities, fearing that their homes and neighborhoods would be the next target. MI5 had an arduous task ahead: to find out more about the attack, the terrorists who carried it out, their motives, and to ensure public safety. The first substantial lead came from Cliff Todd, the country's top forensic investigator, who had been hired to scan the destroyed train cars in the tunnels about eight hours after the attacks.
Upon examining the car, littered with debris and human remains, Todd found an abnormal depression in the floor, suggesting that the explosive device had been placed precisely in that location. Right next to this depression was a corpse with its face completely destroyed, indicating that the individual must have been hunched over the bomb when it exploded, as if to hide it. This was the first time it was confirmed that suicide bombers had carried out the attacks, meaning the perpetrators were already dead, but it was still crucial to know their identities.
An MI5 investigation team had already been reviewing security camera footage from the areas where the attacks took place and eventually found something suspicious. Four men carrying large backpacks were seen entering King's Cross station together, and it was discovered that they had arrived in a private car that was still parked in the station's rear parking lot. A bomb disposal team was immediately dispatched to search the car, and numerous small homemade explosive devices were found in the trunk, confirming that the four men who had arrived in it were indeed the terrorists.
An exhaustive search of the crime scenes was then conducted with the intention of compiling a list of all the victims. Since all the attackers were suicide bombers, the only way to verify their identities was to also review this list and find a match. Eventually, MI5 authorities in West Yorkshire discovered a match between three of the victims, as they all came from the same neighborhood, near Beeston, on the outskirts of Leeds. They quickly shifted the investigation to the search for these three men—Mohamed Sidique Khan, Shehzad Tanweer, and Hasib Hussain—due to the crucial fact that, although they came from the same locality, their IDs had been found at three different crime scenes, meaning they were not ordinary tourists. When authorities arrived in the neighborhood in question, they finally found a connection between Hasib Hussain and a suspicious house a few miles away in Leeds. Although Hasib appeared to be a very ordinary and obedient 18-year-old, he had recently rented a house in Alexandra Grove, Leeds, without the knowledge of his parents or older brother.
When police arrived at this house, there were clear traces of toxic chemicals around the property, and the situation became clearer upon entering the premises. Until now, forensic experts had been perplexed by the nature of the explosive used in the attacks, and now they realized that a special type of explosive had been designed for the attacks, combining hydrogen peroxide with ground black pepper. The identification of the fourth bomber, Germaine Lindsay, was also found in the house. Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, British citizens from a Pakistani immigrant family, carried out the explosions on the three trains along with Lindsay, a British citizen who converted to Islam. Hasib Husain, also a British citizen from a Pakistani immigrant family, carried out the attack on bus number 30. The four men had been inspired by Islamic terrorist ideology, and their attack in London was intended to warn Western civilization.
Several videotapes had also been collected as evidence from the rented house in Alexandra Grove, containing home videos of the men clarifying their position. Inspired by the Islamic extremism spread by Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, the four men decided to take up arms against the British government and those who had elected them for recently supporting US attacks on Iraq. Although MI5 claimed at the time that these four individuals never had criminal records or suspicious alliances, Richard Watson, an investigative journalist featured in the Netflix docuseries, claims otherwise. In fact, Watson also provides substantial evidence, making it seem possible that the attacks could have been avoided if MI5 had been more efficient.
After the 9/11 attacks in New York, the Western world became more concerned about security, and it is true that people with ties to countries in the Middle East, Afghanistan, and Pakistan were monitored a little more than usual. However, when Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer traveled to Pakistan in November 2004, neither the British government nor its intelligence agency had any idea. Later information revealed that both men had received al-Qaeda training during this trip, and Khan, who had traveled to Pakistan for such training at least three times in his life, had received extensive weapons and explosives training from a senior al-Qaeda militant.
What is even more shocking is that MI5 had monitored Khan and Tanweer for some time in 2004, after they were seen with Omar Khyam, a well-known British terrorist linked to al-Qaeda. At the time, Khyam was planning an attack on British nightclubs and restaurants, which was efficiently intercepted by the authorities. However, in a case of rare negligence, MI5 let Khan and Tanweer escape. The London attack allowed Eliza Manningham-Buller, director general of MI5 from 2002 to 2007, to clarify the situation, stating that the intelligence agency simply had too many suspects to investigate at the time and did not consider Khan and Tanweer to be persons of interest. The official inquiry into the 7/7 attacks heavily criticized MI5 for its poor investigation before and after the incident. However, it also clarified that MI5 could not have prevented the attacks, officially denying any theories in this regard.
While the 7/7 attacks were a devastating blow to the United Kingdom and Western life in general, they were not the only terrorist activity in London that month. Just two weeks after the multi-location attacks, a similar terrorist attack was attempted on June 21, 2005. Four bomb explosions were attempted, again on three different London Underground trains and on a bus on the streets of London. Fortunately, the terrorists failed to detonate the bombs properly. When they activated the bombs they had hidden in their backpacks, only the detonators exploded, causing a loud noise and a strong, pungent smell, but the explosions were too ineffective to injure anyone. However, it appeared that the authorities were simply unprepared for a second series of attacks so soon after 7/7, which allowed the four terrorists to escape.
At the start of the investigation, MI5 authorities were unsure whether to consider this attack a continuation of the 7/7 attacks or a separate incident, perhaps attempted by copycat terrorists. Eventually, sufficiently clear images of the four perpetrators were obtained from security camera footage, but since the police needed to catch these individuals as quickly as possible, the images were made public. This is how each of them was identified: neighbors, acquaintances from the gym, and even their relatives, in the other two cases, reported them to the police.
Yasin Hassan Omar, Muktar Said Ibrahim, Ramzi Mohammed, and Hussain Osman came from families who had emigrated to the United Kingdom from different parts of Africa and were strongly influenced by radical Islamic ideology. They had been influenced by al-Qaeda's jihad against the West and were likely collaborators with the 7/7 terrorists. Although a direct link between the two attacks could not be established, a similar mixture of hydrogen peroxide and chapati flour was used in the 7/21 attacks, suggesting that both terrorist groups must have received this recipe for homemade bombs from the same source. The July 21 attacks failed only because smaller amounts of hydrogen peroxide were used, rendering the bombs less potent.
In the frenzy that followed the failed July 21 attacks, MI5 and the London Metropolitan Police made a terrible mistake that claimed the life of an innocent civilian. While searching for the suspects, a Special Operations team began following a man who supposedly resembled one of the targets, leading to a serious misunderstanding. Although the man was not officially identified as one of the suspects, the team began tracking him, first on foot, then on a bus, and finally on the subway. By then, the officers were on edge, and the misunderstandings escalated, leading them to shoot the supposed target on the train, apparently fearing that he might otherwise have detonated a bomb.
Police eventually received a call from a Birmingham apartment owner who had rented his property to Yasin Omar. Upon reviewing the area's security cameras, they located the attacker. Omar had attempted to escape by hiding behind a burqa, but police quickly tracked him to his Birmingham apartment on the 27th and arrested him without incident. The next target was Ramzi Mohammad, known for owning an apartment in Dalgarno Gardens, London. On June 29, police searched the apartment and used smoke grenades to flush out the attacker. To their surprise, both Ramzi Mohammad and Muktar Said Ibrahim emerged from the apartment, surrendering after admitting defeat to the smoke grenades, and were eventually arrested.
The only attacker still at large, Hussain Osman, had already escaped the UK after taking a train to France, but MI5 discovered he had family in Italy. Thus, it was believed that Osman would soon travel to Italy, and he was easily tracked when the man inserted an Italian SIM card into his phone upon arriving in the country. On the night of June 29, Italian police arrested Osman at his relatives' home in Rome, and he was eventually extradited to the United Kingdom. The four terrorists were convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and are currently in prison, serving a sentence of...
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