Cameron says not to give in to terror, calls for unity after SE London attack

British Prime Minister David Cameron on Thursday sent condolences to the soldier killed in Wednesday’s southeast London attack, and said the country will be “absolutely resolute in its stand against violent extremism.”

“We have lost a brave soldier. The people who did this were trying to divide us. They should know something like this will only bring us together and make us stronger,” the prime minister said in front of No. 10 in Downing Street.

“This country will be absolutely resolute in its stand against violent extremism and terrorism. We will never give in to terror or terrorism in any of its forms,” Cameron said.

Flowers are laid at the entrance to the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich in southeast London, May 23, 2013. (Xinhua/Bimal Gautam)

The Metropolitan Police (MPS) and the Ministry of Defense (MOD) confirmed Thursday that the man killed in Woolwich was a serving soldier. Details of the victim’s identify were not published “in line with the wishes of his family.”

British Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said he was “shocked by the brutality of this cold-blooded murder of a serviceman on the streets of London.”

The prime minister, meanwhile, said there were strong indications that the attack is a “terrorist incident.”

“This was not just an attack on Britain, and on our British way of life. It was also a betrayal of Islam and of the Muslim communities who give so much to our country. There is nothing in Islam that justifies this truly dreadful act,” Cameron said.

British Islamic communities have expressed condemnation on the Woolwich attack.

“We need to make sure we don’t allow extremists to divide the country. We need to remain calm and measured and get the message out there that we will not allow this to divide us. It was an attack on all of us, on our country, all of us,” Julie Siddiqi from Islamic Society of Britain said.

However, Britain’s Muslim Public Affairs Committee (MPACUK) pointed to a connection between the violent attack and Britain’s foreign policy.

“What is the government likely to do apart from condemning the violence and denying the link between our own foreign policy and domestic acts of violence by some of Britain’s Muslims? Nothing whatsoever,” the MPACUK said in a statement in response to the incident.

“Despite the Muslim Public Affairs Committee’s efforts, the depressingly predictable and familiar cycle of violence is likely to continue until the government accepts the real link between the two. Only then will any solution be within reach,” the MPACUK said.

The British soldier was killed by two attackers wielding knives including a meat cleaver near the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich in southeast London on Wednesday afternoon.

The attackers were shot by the police arriving on the scene, and have been sent to separate hospitals for treatment, the MPS Commander Simon Letchford said.

The police have yet to release more details of the attack. Local media reports quoting government sources and witnesses said the attackers hit the victim with a car and then assaulted him with knives.