Ashes of London

The war between terrorists and civilization has reached Great Britain

Terrorists are close to us, they participate in summits and in preparations for the Olympic Games. And they never tire of reminding us that there is a war going on in the world. Yesterday London became the target of terror - the day after it was named the capital of the 2012 Olympics, snatching victory from Paris. London also benefited from the fact that after the explosions in New York and Moscow, which were also bidding to host the Olympics, it looked like one of the calmest cities in the world. But yesterday terrorists proved that there are no quiet places in today's world.

The UN Security Council, meeting in New York for an emergency meeting, unanimously adopted a resolution not only condemning the terrorist attacks in London, but also calling on all countries to help punish the perpetrators. The problem is that this is not the first resolution of this kind (remember September 11, 2001 in New York or September 2004 in Beslan). But developed countries are still powerless in the face of terror.

So, yesterday at rush hour, around 9 o'clock in the morning, several explosions were heard almost simultaneously on London public transport. Around this time, the G8 summit was opening in Scotland. Scotland Yard said last night there were four explosions - three on the Underground (between Liverpool Street and Aldgate stations, and King's Cross and Edgware Road stations) and one on a Russell bus -Square. At least 37 people were killed, almost 700 were injured, about fifty seriously. So there may be more victims. The Russian embassy in London said yesterday that most likely no Russians were injured.

For Russians, the tragedy in the London underground is clearer than anyone else: on February 6, 2004, an explosion occurred in Moscow on the metro section between the Paveletskaya and Avtozavodskaya stations, and on August 31, 2004, at the Rizhskaya metro station. Yesterday's television footage from London was painfully reminiscent of the Moscow video sequence: crowds of people hastily leaving smoky metro stations, bloodied victims, rescuers. But all this already happened in New York and Washington on September 11, 2001, in Madrid on March 11, 2004. Many times - in Israel.

“The terrorists acted under the slogans of Islam,” British Prime Minister Tony Blair admitted late in the evening. “Still, please note that Blair carefully said “under the slogans of Islam,” without blaming Muslims as such,” Deputy Chairman of the Muslim Community of Great Britain Muhammad Savaliha told the Vremya Novostey newspaper. He admitted, however, that the explosions occurred mainly in the northern part of the capital, where many Muslims from Arab countries live. This may indirectly confirm that Islamists were behind the terrorist attack - the bombers (the participation of suicide bombers is not excluded) were well acquainted with these areas. On the other hand, as Mr. Savaliha noted, “the names of the victims have not yet been made public, but I am sure there will be Muslims among them; in these areas, about two-thirds of the population are Arabs.” Civilians, no matter what their faith, become victims of terror.

Mr. Savaliha admitted that Muslim organizations in Britain are afraid of increased attention from the intelligence services: “I really wouldn’t like it, but far-right politicians in Europe could take advantage of the situation to launch a campaign against people from third world countries living here.” Our interlocutor said that all central mosques in London have been under special police protection since yesterday morning: “There are many mosques in the areas where the explosions occurred.” According to Mr. Savaliha, “in the UK with a population of almost 60 million there are now about 3 million Muslims, and in London with a population of 7 million there are almost 10% of them.”

Great Britain had a rather liberal policy towards immigrants from the East. So liberal that for many years illegal aid to separatists in Russian Chechnya came from here, and calls for jihad were heard in London mosques. Tightening followed only four years ago, but not because of requests from Moscow, but at the insistence of Washington after the tragedy of September 11, 2001.

It is obvious that yesterday's terrorist attacks were coordinated in time and designed to produce the maximum deterrent effect. They showed. that the counterterrorist operation, which after the terrorist attacks in the United States even began to be called the third world war, has not yet brought victory to the civilized world.

Yesterday, one of the Islamist sites admitted the authorship of Al-Qaeda in the bombings in London. As the previously unknown group “Al-Qaeda's Secret Jihad Organization in Europe” stated, this is “revenge for the bloodshed” in Iraq and Afghanistan. The group warned of imminent terrorist attacks in Italy, Denmark and other “crusader countries” that are part of the occupying coalition in Iraq.

Tony Blair was one of the European leaders who unconditionally supported the US war in Iraq. Britain sent there its largest military contingent after the American one. It is not for nothing that the European Police Agency (Europol) warned in its report in April this year that Britain is now “the main target of al-Qaeda.” Apparently, the British intelligence services (like the Americans on the eve of September 11) suspected of impending terrorist attacks, but did not know about it for sure and, as we see, did not prevent them in any case. Israeli diplomats said yesterday that shortly before the explosions they received information from their British colleagues about a terrorist threat. The Israelis, as always, acted quickly: Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was in London, immediately after the first explosion canceled a speech at the Great Eastern Hotel, next to Liverpool Street station.

Anxiety gripped all of Europe yesterday. In London, many subway stations were closed, and mobile communications were poor. Due to the threat of a terrorist attack, the third terminal of London Heathrow Airport and part of a shopping street in Edinburgh were urgently evacuated, where a suspicious object was found on a bus. In the United States, the terrorist threat level was also raised to a high “orange” level, and security measures on public transport were strengthened in cities. Similar measures were taken in Moscow. In Russia, the police and internal troops were transferred to an enhanced version of their service. As Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Alexander Chekalin stated, “the central office of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs has deployed an Operational Headquarters for organizing and conducting law enforcement anti-terrorist measures in the country.” All over the world - and Russia is no exception - authorities have appealed to citizens to be vigilant, especially when using public transport.

The number of terrible historical dates and the geography of the terrorist nightmare are expanding. Now there is one more entry in this bloody list: “London. 07/07/2005.”

Andrey ZLOBIN, Elena SUPONINA