How ISIS fanatics acting alone could become the new terror scourge of Europe…and are almost impossible to stop
POLICE say the London attacker who drove a car into dozens of pedestrians then stabbed a police officer acted alone - but was inspired by radical terrorism.
The Westminster attack bore many hallmarks of the "lone wolf" jihadi - a single individual inspired rather than one directly assisted by terrorist organisations.
Authorities have repeatedly warned that such attacks are extremely difficult to prevent due to the lack of signal intelligence involved in the planning of the atrocity.
This includes mobile phone conversations, internet searches and other digital communications usually monitored by authorities.
In late December, ISIS called on individuals to carry out attacks similar to the Berlin and Nice lorry massacre, in which trucks were driven through crowds of people.
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Yesterday just hours before the Westminster attack occurred, Europol director Jon Rob Wainwright warned Europe must accept that such attacks will continue.
Today Andrew Silke, a Professor of Criminology, wrote in The Sun that such low-tech attacks at symbolic locations such as Westminster are a "hallmark of militant jihadi terrorism".
Three people were killed in the attack, including PC Keith Palmer, a member of the Met's Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command, and mum Aysha Frade, who was picking her children up from school.
He added: "Britain’s strict gun laws make it difficult to smuggle weaponry, so attacks such as the shootings at the Bataclan in Paris have mercifully been avoided.
"But the simplicity of this new wave of terror increases the difficulty of detecting preparations."
And last year several experts told The Sun Online that Europe's new threat was small-scale single attacker atrocities - the opposite of those seen in Paris in November 2015.
At the time, Dr David Lowe, a terrorism expert at Liverpool John Moores University, explained that lone wolf attacks were not as effective as coordinated attacks, such as those seen in Paris and Belgium, but they were likely to continue.
He added such attackers "get inspired on their own and Islamic State claim them as their soldier".
"It’s really hard to stop that... But they are not as effective as those bigger attacks."
Today Olivier Guitta, the managing director of security and risk consultants GlobalStrat, said: "The UK has about 3,000 potential jihadists to monitor: knowing you need 30 officers to just monitor one that would mean 90,000 staff. Impossible.
"France has 15,000 jihadists on its terror watch list! Without human intel to point out a potential attack, it's impossible to know who to follow."
Mark Rowley, national lead for Counter Terrorism Policing and Met Acting Deputy Commissioner, said last night: "It is still our belief - which continues to be born out by our investigation - that this attacker acted alone yesterday and was inspired by international terrorism."
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