Latest news with #counterTerrorism
Yahoo
07-07-2025
- Yahoo
July 7 attacks were watershed moment for head of Met's counter-terrorism squad
The July 7 2005 attacks were a watershed moment for the now-head of the Metropolitan Police's counter-terrorism squad, who drove to London to help in the aftermath of the atrocities and remained in the capital for the next two decades. In 2005 Commander Dominic Murphy had been an officer in Hertfordshire for 12 years and had trained as a bomb scene examiner before the attacks on the transport system that killed 52 people and injured hundreds more. When he saw the horror unfolding on the television, he 'did that thing that police officers shouldn't really do' and headed to London before he had been officially deployed. Mr Murphy told the PA news agency: 'I was an officer who could be called into London or some other part of the country to help SO13 (former Met anti-terrorist branch) if they were responding to a terrorist attack, or conduct searches or support them in some way. 'And I remember sitting in the special branch office, which is our intelligence unit in Hertfordshire, and I was watching this unfold on TV, and I did that thing that police officers shouldn't really do. 'I didn't wait to be deployed. I spoke to my line manager and grabbed a car and all my kit and equipment and drove straight down to London to be here as quickly as I could.' The compassion shown by the officers investigating the bombings and the speed at which they worked inspired him to spend the rest of his career in counter-terrorism. Mr Murphy said: 'I arrived in our forensic management team. 'These were the officers and staff that were leading the response at the scenes to gather the evidence and recover those that had been unfortunately killed in the incident. 'I arrived to something I would describe as a really high pace of activity, the sort of activity you would expect policing to be doing at a terrible incident like this, but of course, this was on a scale and a type of incident we had never seen. 'I was struck by all of those counter-terrorism officers from SO13 that I met, their professionalism, their commitment to finding who was responsible for this attack, their overwhelming compassion for victims… that compassion extended to how they recovered those that were deceased from the attacks. 'I was struck by the end of that first day to see the professionalism and the pace they were working at. 'I never wanted to work anywhere else. 'I really only ever wanted to work with this group of people who I thought were some of the most impressive people I'd ever seen, and just the way that commitment portrayed itself to their service to the public and the victims was overwhelming for me. 'So I had been a Hertfordshire officer for nearly 12 years at that point, but I never really went back to Hertfordshire. 'I stayed here then, and have been here in counter-terrorism for the rest of my career.' He specialised in body recovery, and has been deployed abroad to help investigate several atrocities involving British victims or interests, including the 2015 Tunisian beach attacks as well as tragedies in Algeria, Yemen and Sudan.
The Independent
03-07-2025
- The Independent
Jurors view dramatic moment armed police arrest neo-Nazi teenager in gun sting
Jurors have viewed the dramatic moment armed police swarmed a car park to arrest a neo-Nazi teenager as he allegedly picked up a gun for a terrorist attack. Alfie Coleman was detained outside a Morrisons supermarket after he exchanged £3,500 for a Marakov gun and ammunition, the Old Bailey has heard. It was the culmination of a 'highly sophisticated operation' in which Coleman was allegedly snared by an undercover officer from MI5. Former Tesco worker Coleman had allegedly made an arrangement with the undercover officer for the supply of a Makarov pistol, five magazines and 200 rounds of ammunition. Coleman, then aged 19, was allegedly told they would be in a Land Rover Discovery parked in the Morrisons car park in Stratford, east London, on the morning of September 29 2023. Jurors have been shown video footage of the defendant, dressed in a black tracksuit with the hood up as he went to collect the weaponry. In the video, he is seen leaving cash in the front passenger seat footwell and collecting a holdall from the boot. But before he has walked 30 yards, he is confronted by counter-terrorism police officers pointing stun guns. In front of shocked shoppers, Coleman drops to his knees and lies flat on the ground before being handcuffed. Coleman has accepted having a significant quantity of extreme right-wing material and pleaded guilty to possessing 10 documents which contain information likely to be useful to terrorists. The defendant, now aged 21, of Great Notley in Essex, has also pleaded guilty to attempting to possess both a firearm and ammunition but has denied he was preparing for a terrorist attack. The Old Bailey trial continues.
CTV News
27-06-2025
- Politics
- CTV News
Four arrested in connection with break-in at a U.K. military base
LONDON — British counter terrorism police said Friday that they have arrested four people in connection with a break-in at a military base last week, during which two planes were vandalized. Counter Terrorism Policing South East said in a statement that two men, 24 and 36, from London were arrested Thursday along with a 29-year-old woman of no fixed address 'on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.' A 41-year-old woman, of no fixed address, was also arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender. They remain in police custody. The arrests relate to a break-in at the Royal Air Force base in Brize Norton, during which two planes were damaged with red paint. The pro-Palestinian activist group Palestine Action subsequently released video footage appearing to show one of the two activists who entered the base spraying the paint into a jet's turbine engines. The group alleged that Britain was continuing to 'send military cargo, fly spy planes over Gaza and refuel U.S./Israeli fighter jets,' and condemned the country as 'an active participant in the Gaza genocide and war crimes across the Middle East.' Earlier this week, the British government said it will ban Palestine Action under anti-terrorism laws. The measure means it will be a criminal offence to belong to or support the group, with a maximum of 14 years in prison. The group has sought to press its point with high-profile direct action, perhaps most notably in March when it targeted one of U.S. President Donald Trump's golf resorts in Scotland, painting 'Gaza is Not For Sale' in giant letters on the lawn in response to his proposal to empty the Gaza Strip of its Palestinian population. The government said a draft order for the ban will be laid in Parliament next week. Lawmakers still need to approve it. Britain's government has proscribed about 80 organizations, including Hamas and al Qaeda, and far-right groups such as National Action. The Associated Press
Arab News
27-06-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
UK police arrest four over pro-Palestinian protest at air base
LONDON: British counter-terrorism police have arrested four people in connection with a pro-Palestinian protest last week in which military planes were sprayed with paint at an air base in England, authorities said on Friday.A woman, 29, and two men aged 36 and 24, were arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism, while another woman, 41, was arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender, the police statement activists from the Palestine Action group broke into the air base in Oxfordshire in central England on June 20, spraying red paint over two planes used for refueling and transport, and further damaging them with crowbars, an act that was condemned by Prime Minister Keir Starmer as 'disgraceful.'Within days of the incident, interior minister Yvette Cooper set out plans to use anti-terrorism laws to ban Palestine Action, saying its actions had become more aggressive and caused millions of pounds of Action has regularly targeted British sites connected to Israeli defense firm Elbit Systems and other companies in Britain linked to Israel since the start of the conflict in response to Friday's arrests, the campaign group accused authorities of 'cracking down on non-violent protests which disrupt the flow of arms to Israel during its genocide in Palestine.'The maximum sentence for preparation of terrorist acts, or to assist others in such preparation, in Britain is a life sentence. The government is also reviewing security across all defense has repeatedly dismissed accusations that it is committing genocide in the war in Gaza which began when Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, killing nearly 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 others hostage into launched a military campaign that has killed more than 56,000 Palestinians, the majority of them civilians, according to local health authorities in Gaza.
Washington Post
27-06-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Four arrested in connection with break-in at a UK military base
LONDON — British counter terrorism police said Friday that they have arrested four people in connection with a break-in at a military base last week, during which two planes were vandalised. Counter Terrorism Policing South East said in a statement that two men, 24 and 36, from London were arrested Thursday along with a 29-year-old woman of no fixed address 'on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.' A 41-year-old woman, of no fixed address, was also arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender. They remain in police custody. The arrests relate to a break-in at the Royal Air Force base in Brize Norton, during which two planes were damaged with red paint. The pro-Palestinian activist group Palestine Action subsequently released video footage appearing to show one of the two activists who entered the base spraying the paint into a jet's turbine engines. The group alleged that Britain was continuing to 'send military cargo, fly spy planes over Gaza and refuel U.S./Israeli fighter jets,' and condemned the country as 'an active participant in the Gaza genocide and war crimes across the Middle East.' Earlier this week, the British government said it will ban Palestine Action under anti-terrorism laws. The measure means it will be a criminal offense to belong to or support the group, with a maximum of 14 years in prison. The group has sought to press its point with high-profile direct action, perhaps most notably in March when it targeted one of U.S. President Donald Trump's golf resorts in Scotland, painting 'Gaza is Not For Sale' in giant letters on the lawn in response to his proposal to empty the Gaza Strip of its Palestinian population. The government said a draft order for the ban will be laid in Parliament next week. Lawmakers still need to approve it. Britain's government has proscribed about 80 organizations, including Hamas and al-Qaida, and far-right groups such as National Action.
