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IS claims responsibility for UK Parliament strike
The Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the deadly assault at the British Parliament, as Prime Minister Theresa May identified the attacker as a British-born man known to intelligence services.
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London
“An act of terrorism tried to silence our democracy,” May told a packed House of Commons, which stood for a minute’s silence in remembrance of the victims of Wednesday’s strike on the symbol of Britain’s democracy.
“We are not afraid and our resolve will never waver in the face of terrorism,” May said. Armed police have arrested eight people in raids linked to the rampage that left four people, including the attacker, dead and sowed panic in the heart of London. IS said it was responsible, according to the Amaq propaganda agency linked to the jihadist organisation.
“The perpetrator of yesterday’s attack in front of the British parliament was a soldier of the Islamic State and the operation was carried out in response to calls to target coalition countries,” Amaq said citing a “security source.”
Defiant British lawmakers returned to “business as usual” in the surreal silence of an area of central London normally thronged with tourists. Some reports said 40 people were treated in hospital, including seven in critical condition, some with “catastrophic” injuries.
Among them were French school children and foreign tourists. The attacker mowed down pedestrians with a car on Westminster bridge, killing two, and then jumped out and stabbed to death a police officer guarding parliament before being shot dead.
The carnage was unleashed on the same day Brussels was marking the first anniversary of IS bombings that killed 32 people.
Hundreds of extra police were on patrol in London as officers worked around the clock to piece together what happened in the deadliest attack in Britain since four suicide bombers killed 52 people on the capital’s transport system in July 2005.
US missions to toughen visa scrutiny
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has directed US diplomatic missions to identify “populations warranting increased scrutiny” and toughen screening for visa applicants in those groups, according to diplomatic cables seen by Reuters .
He has also ordered a “mandatory social media check” for all applicants who have ever been present in territory controlled by the Islamic State, in what two former U.S. officials said would be a broad, labour-intensive expansion of such screening. Social media screening is now done fairly rarely by consular officials, one of the former officials said.
Four cables issued by Tillerson over the last two weeks provide insight into how the US government is implementing what President Donald Trump has called “extreme vetting” of foreigners entering the United States, a major campaign promise. The cables also demonstrate the administrative and logistical hurdles the White House faces in executing its vision. The memos, which have not been previously reported, provided instructions for implementing Trump’s March 6 revised executive order temporarily barring visitors from six Muslim-majority countries and all refugees, as well as a simultaneous memorandum mandating enhanced visa screening.
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