Terrorism ‘changed’ since 7/7 bombings

The rise of Islamic State (IS) and extremists’ capacity to “reach” into homes means Britain faces a “very different” threat today than it did at the time of the July 7, 2005, London bombings, the country’s most senior counter-terrorism officer has said.

Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley has appealed to communities to “step forward” in the fight against radicalisation, and said their help was now more crucial in preventing attacks.

Speaking ahead of today’s 10th anniversary of the attacks on London’s transport system, in which four suicide bombers killed 52 commuters, Rowley said officers now faced a “completely different profile”, as IS exploits modern technology to create a “violent cult”.

He said: “The threat we face today is very different. More than ever before, we need the help of communities. It’s absolutely essential that everyone plays their part.”

Rowley described how the threat had changed since the bombings 10 years ago.

“We’ve seen another step-change in terrorism, in the way it works and connects across the world, in the last couple of years,” he said.

“We are not simply confronting a terrorist organisation like al-Qaida, or like the IRA, which works in a secret way and plots and plans what it wants to do secretly.

“Tight organisations planning terrorist atrocities, going for complex, high-impact attacks, was where we were. We are dealing with an organisation that uses marketing, uses the internet, and is trying to create a corrupt, violent cult that is going to act in its name.”

IS is creating an “enormous” list of potential targets, which is “not very focused”, Rowley said.

“They are not necessarily focused on massively complicated attacks,” he said. “They are focused on the propaganda value. We still have some individuals interested in sophisticated attack-planning, but you’ve got this breadth now.

“You’ve got the way it reaches into people’s homes, in terms of recruitment, you’ve got the way somebody on one side of the world can organise a plot on the other side of the world through the internet, you’ve got all those different dynamics, which are very different to what we were dealing with in 2005.”

The “diversification” in communication provides terrorists with “different ways to work”, said Rowley.

Terror suspects are being detained at a rate of one every day. Rowley said the level of police activity was “extraordinary”, but that communities defeat terrorism.

“We need everyone’s help, whether it is about spotting strange behaviour which might be somebody planning something, whether it is the change in behaviour of an individual, which is significant in terms of them being drawn into extremism and terrorism,” said Rowley.

“We will keep doing everything we possibly can do to disrupt things going on, but with this volume, with this reach into communities over the internet, more than ever we need the help of communities, schools, health institutions, we need everyone to be helping to step forward in confronting this threat.”