The Muslim terrorist who hacked a British soldier to death in broad daylight Wednesday — and was captured on shocking video shouting, “You people will never be safe!” — was identified Thursday as the son of Nigerian immigrants who had embraced radical Islam to the horror of his devout Christian parents. Michael Olumide Adebolajo, 28, was known to Britain’s MI5 intelligence as a potentially dangerous extremist, the Sun tabloid reported. Sources told Sun reporters that Adebolajo became a Muslim as a teenager and was linked to radical leader Anjem Choudary, whose Islamist group Al-Muhajiroun has been banned in Britain.
Wednesday afternoon’s bloody murder, which killed a soldier in the streets of Woolwich in South East London, is being treated as a terrorist incident, British authorities said. A second suspect in the attack has yet to be publicly identified.
Lee Rigby, a 25-year-old Army veteran of Afghanistan, was the target of the attack. Rigby, a native of Manchester, enlisted at age 19, “completed an infantry training course … and was selected to be a member of the Corps of Drums, posted to the 2nd Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers,” the Guardian newspaper reported. Rigby’s 2009 tour of duty in Afghanistan put him in Helmand province “during one of the worst periods of fighting against the Taliban,” the paper reported. Video of Wednesday’s attack showed Adebolajo yelling “Allahu akbar” while brandishing a butcher knife and a meat cleaver with Rigby’s blood covering his hands.
The Guardian reported that after becoming a Muslim, Adebolajo changed his name to Mujaahid — Arabic for “one who engages in jihad” — and had been scrutinized in counter-terrorism investigations by police and security officials. “Adebolajo was frequently seen in Woolwich handing out Islamist literature in the High Street,” the paper reported.
A woman who confronted the two killers on the scene says one of the terrorists told her, “We want to start a war in London tonight.” Ingrid Loyau-Kennett, 48, told the Telegraph newspaper that the attacker explained the motive for the attack on the soldier: “I killed him because he killed Muslims and I am fed up with people killing Muslims in Afghanistan.”
Witnesses said the soldier was “hacked to bits” by Adebolajo and another terrorist who were described as “beheading” Rigby. The attack happened about 2 p.m. local time near the Royal Artillery barracks.
