London terrorist named as UK-born Khalid Masood
Known criminal, 52, with no history of terror offenses, killed 3, injured dozens in assault on UK Parliament
LONDON — The man who mowed down pedestrians and stabbed a policeman in a deadly terror attack outside the British parliament claimed by the Islamic State was identified by police on Thursday as 52-year-old Khalid Masood.
London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement that Masood was known by “a number of aliases”.
Three people, including the policeman, were killed in the attack. Some 30 people were injured.
Masood was shot dead by armed officers.
He was born in Kent in southeast England and had been living in the West Midlands, which includes the city of Birmingham where there was an armed police raid overnight in connection with Wednesday’s assault.
Police said Masood had a range of convictions for assault including grievous bodily harm, possession of offensive weapons and public order offences ranging from 1983 to 2003.
However, it said Masood had never been convicted of any terrorism offences and that he “was not the subject of any investigations and there was no prior intelligence about his intent to mount a terrorist attack”.
Earlier Thursday, Prime Minister Theresa May said the man behind the attack had once been investigated by the intelligence service MI5 “in relation to concerns about violent extremism.”
Prior to the identification of Masood as the attacker, the IS-linked Aamaq news agency said earlier Thursday that the person who carried out the “attack in front of the British parliament in London was a soldier of the Islamic State.” It added that the person “carried out the operation in response to calls for targeting citizens of the coalition.”
IS has called on its supporters to carry out attacks against citizens of the US-led coalition that has been targeting the group since 2014. The group, responsible for numerous bloody attacks around the globe, has previously claimed certain attacks in a show of opportunism.
US President Donald Trump offered his prayers and condolences to the family and friends of the American killed in the attack.
Trump tweeted Thursday that Kurt Cochran was “a great American,” adding, “my prayers and condolences are with his family and friends.”
Cochran and his wife, Melissa, were on the last day of a special European trip celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary and were hit by Masood as he rammed his car into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge. Melissa was badly injured in the attack.
Aysha Frade, a British national whose mother is Spanish, was also killed on the bridge. Frade worked as an administrator at the DLD College — a school in Westminster a stone’s throw from Parliament.
“She was highly regarded and loved by our students and by her colleagues. She will be deeply missed by all of us,” Rachel Borland, the college principal, said in a statement.
Frade had two daughters, Spain’s regional Voz de Galicia newspaper reported.
In the northwestern Spanish town of Betanzos, where Frade’s mother was born and her two sisters run an English-language school, the mayor said: “The whole town is shocked.” Although Frade, 43, was born and lived in London, she spent weeks every summer in Betanzos visiting relatives, said Ramon Garcia Vazquez, mayor of the town of 13,000 people in Spain’s Galicia region.
“The family of Aysha was very well known in the village and loved by everybody here,” he told The Associated Press. Betanzos town hall held a minute’s silence for the family at noon Thursday and the mayor announced three days of mourning, canceling all official activities in the town.
Police Officer Keith Palmer, 48, was on duty protecting Parliament Wednesday when he was stabbed to death by Masood. He had been a member of the parliamentary and diplomatic protection forces for 15 years, and a soldier in the Royal Artillery before that.
Honoring Palmer, Prime Minister Theresa May said he was “a husband, a father … he was every inch a hero… His actions will never be forgotten.”
Conservative lawmaker James Cleverly tweeted that he was “heartbroken,” having known Palmer for 25 years. He said they served in the military together. “A lovely man, a friend,” Cleverly wrote.