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An Islamic State agent tried to persuade an undercover reporter to carry out an attack on London Bridge, a year before eight people were killed and dozens injured at the landmark, it has been claimed.
A special report by BBC Inside Out London said the agent had encouraged one of its journalists to target London Bridge, suggesting he could do it alone or in a group.
The same agent also revealed explicit terrorist tutorials on the dark web with details the BBC said bore striking similarities to the attack on London Bridge on 3 June, in which all three assailants – Khuram Butt, 27, Rachid Redouane, 30, and Youssef Zaghba, 22 – were shot and killed by police at the scene.
In a special report on Islamist-inspired extremism researched over two years, the undercover journalist used Twitter to make contact with Birmingham-born jihadi and Isis recruiter Junaid Hussain.
Speaking through an encrypted messaging site, 21-year-old Hussain said he could help to train the undercover reporter on how to make bombs at home.
When Hussain, from Birmingham, was killed by a US army drone in the Syrian city of Raqqa in 2015, another recruiter made contact with the reporter to continue the conversation. He detailed a plot to assassinate a police officer, including how to obtain firearms and bullets.
The reporter said: “In July 2016, we discovered that the terrorist organisation was touting on Twitter and Facebook for British Muslims to stage attacks at specific London locations.
“We began conversing with one of their recruiters, who then invited us to chat privately on a secret messaging site. The authorities were fully aware of our contact with the terrorist organisation.”
The revelation came as a separate poll conducted by Inside Out found that 90% of the 6,546 people surveyed across England believed there would be more terror attacks.
When asked whether they felt more or less safe in public spaces compared with 12 months ago, 29% said they felt less safe, and 10% thought they, a family member or a good friend could be killed or wounded in a terrorist attack.
Fifty-two per cent said they thought the security services should be given more powers to tackle terrorism, even at the expense of individual privacy.
(THG GUARDIAN)
