Police Arrest London Chemical Bomb Terror Suspects

Two brothers have been arrested by London police in a raid on their suspected chemical bomb factory.

A man has been shot by police in an anti-terror raid in London on a suspected chemical bomb factory. The 20-year-old man was shot in the shoulder and was arrested in hospital – his life is not in danger. His 23-year-old brother – both men are of thought to be of Bengali or Pakistani origin – was also arrested at the scene and is in custody. Locals have named the shot man as Abdul Koya and his brother as Abdul Kahar.

[…]

Police sources told Sky’s Crime correspondent Martin Brunt detectives expect to find a chemical bomb of some kind in the house in Lansdown Road, Forest Gate, east London. They were allegedly being primed for a suspected bomb plot against the UK. He said: “These brothers were being watched for many weeks if not months. There is no suggestion anything was imminent but clearly the suspicion was people at the house were involved in the planning to target the house. “Police are not expecting to find conventional weapons. They are looking to find chemical ingredients of some kind.”

Good that they keep catching these guys. At some point, they won’t.

AllahPundit has a roundup of other coverage.

The much-hated Jeff Goldstein suggests this is blowback for Tony Blair’s decision to support the Iraq War and/or part of an elaborate attempt by Karl Rove to distract from the Bush administration’s sagging poll numbers.

Update: Reductio creep works fast when dealing with Islamists, apparently. Via Allah’s comment below:

Sir Iqbal Sacranie, head of the Muslim Council of Britain, has claimed that the London bombings would not have happened if Britain had not invaded Iraq. Sir Iqbal, who is stepping down as secretary general of the Council after four years, told the BBC this morning that Britain is “suffering the consequences” of the conflict. “I think if we had not gone to Iraq, the situation perhaps would not have been where we are today,” he said.

Mighty hard to do satire these days without quickly being overtaken by events.

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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. Allah says:

    Thanks for the link, James. But it’s not just Goldstein who’s suggesting that.

  2. Ugh says:

    blowback for Tony Blairâ??s decision to support the Iraq War

    What’s so reductio about that?

  3. jamal says:

    Yes and I in no way think do do. But as you have a good coverage, some of your visitors may think in this way.

  4. Ozgood Z'beard says:

    Numerous people around the world love Britain and respect its culture and history. Many of them have ancestral links to the UK. Just a generation or two ago, in World War II, thousands of young men from Canada, the US, Australia, New Zealand and other countries fought for Britain. Many of them died — including those shot down while deending London in the Battle of Britain. Yet Britain seems determined to fill itself with a largely alien population, a proportion of whom despise the country, its values and virtually everything it stands for.

    Surely, a country that cannot work out who its friends are is destined to be torn apart by its enemies — particularly those enenies who live within its borders and carry British passports. Sad indeed.

    Ozgood,
    Australia