Woolwich killing: Further arrests as spotlight turns on security services

British police arrested two more people yesterday in a hunt for accomplices of two British men of Nigerian descent accused of hacking a soldier to death on a London street in revenge for wars in Muslim countries.

The family of the soldier, Drummer Lee Rigby, paid tribute to “a loving son, husband, father, brother and uncle” who always wanted to be in the army and “live life and enjoy himself”.

The victim, who has a two-year-old son Jake, was a machine gunner who served with Nato-led forces in Afghanistan in 2009, the defence ministry said.

His colleagues in 2nd Battalion the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers said he was as an “extremely popular and witty soldier” who had a “larger than life personality” and was a passionate, lifelong Manchester United fan.

The two suspected killers, now under guard in hospitals, had been known to security services before Wednesday’s daylight attack, security sources said. Another man and a woman, both aged 29, were detained on suspicion of conspiracy to murder.

One of the assailants, filmed calmly justifying the killing as he stood by the body holding a knife and meat cleaver in bloodied hands, was named by acquaintances as 28-year-old Londoner Michael Adebolajo — a British-born convert to Islam.

So frenzied was the attack, some witnesses thought they were trying to behead and disembowel the victim.

The attack, just a month after the Boston Marathon bombing and the first Islamist killing in Britain since local suicide bombers killed 52 people in London in 2005, revived fears of “lone wolves” who may have had no direct contact with al Qaeda.

Adebolajo and the other man, who may have been born abroad and later naturalised as British, were shot by police at the scene.

Officers on the case raided six homes yesterday — five properties in London and one in a village in eastern England.

“This is a large, complex and fast-moving investigation which continues to develop,” a spokesman said.

Detectives are sifting through witness statements, social media and security camera footage, while forensic experts have been combing the scene in Woolwich for evidence.

Prime minister David Cameron held an emergency meeting of his intelligence chiefs to assess the response to what he called a “terrorist” attack; it was the first deadly strike in mainland Britain since local Islamists killed dozens in London in 2005.

“We will never give in to terror or terrorism in any of its forms,” Cameron said outside his Downing St office.

“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.”

US president Barack Obama condemned it “in the strongest terms”, adding in a statement: “The United States stands resolute with the United Kingdom, our ally and friend, against violent extremism and terror.”

A source close to the investigation told Reuters that both attackers were known to Britain’s MI5 internal security service. Adebolajo had handed out radical Islamist pamphlets but neither was considered a serious threat, a government source said.

Anjem Choudary, one of Britain’s most recognised Islamist clerics, told Reuters Adebolajo was known to fellow Muslims as Mujahid — a name meaning “fighter”: “He used to attend a few demonstrations and activities in the past.”

— Reuters