Terror Attack on the London Underground Train

The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for a terror attack that took place on September 15^th on the London Underground train at the Parsons Green station, injuring 29 people.

The explosion was caused by the detonation of an improvised explosive device (IED) which appears to have malfunctioned. The IED was in a white bucket with Christmas lights attached to a battery as the initiator in the device. If the bomb had been detonated correctly, it might have killed dozens of people.

This bomb is similar to a type of bomb published in an Al-Qaeda magazine. This is not the first time the Al-Qaeda magazine has influenced bombers. The magazine has been connected to the Boston Marathon bombers in 2013, where the two suspects read a detailed article about explosive-building. There was also a failed attack on the London Underground train last October with similar design to the bomb on Parsons Green.

This is the fifth terror attack to happen in England this year, the fourth to occur in London. The U.K. terror threat level was “severe,” the second highest level, meaning an attack is highly likely but has been changed to “critical” which means an attack may be imminent.

There is alarm in the U.K. over the rate and scale of attacks in recent months.

In March, Khalid Masood drove a car into pedestrians on the Westminster Bridge killing four people and injuring 49 and then got out of the vehicle and stabbed a police officer before being shot dead.

In May, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for a suicide bomber blowing himself up at a concert in Manchester which killed 22 people and injured 116.

The Islamic State claimed responsibility for another attack in June when 3 people in a van ran over pedestrians on the London Bridge and then stabbed multiple people in Borough Market killing 8 people and injuring 48.

A second attack occurred in June when a suspected lone wolf used his vehicle to hit pedestrians near a mosque in Finsbury Park killing one person and injuring 11 others.

The incidents prompted Prime Minister Theresa May to promise an overhaul of Britain’s counterterrorism strategy and possibly pursue new laws targeting extremism. After the London Bridge attack, PM May talked about a new strategy on how she planned to fight terror. She said there needed to be more focus online and in real life about the spread of extremism and stated that there was too much tolerance of extremism in the country.

There are currently no suspects in the investigation but surveillance is being reviewed and armed police officers and military personnel are patrolling to try to catch the suspect(s) responsible for this attack.