Naa’imur Zakariyah Rahman, 20, from north London, and Mohammed Aqib Imran, 21, from southeast Birmingham, accused of plotting to assassinate UK Prime Minister Theresa May, will be indicted in court Wednesday morning, ITV reported. According to MI5 chief Andrew Parker, briefing the cabinet, the plan, hatched by ISIS, was to launch a bomb attack on the security gates outside Downing Street 10, and when Mrs. May rushed out – to stab her.
Parker noted this was the ninth Islamist terror plots so far that have been thwarted by law enforcement agencies in 2017.
But UK media noted in response that there have been a string of terror attacks that were not thwarted in 2017. In March, Khalid Masood rammed pedestrians outside Westminster, killing five and injuring 50. In May, Salman Abedi blew himself up in Manchester after an Ariana Grande concert, killing 22. In June, eight people were killed when Rachid Redouane, Youssef Zaghba, and Khuram Butt, ran over pedestrians on London Bridge and then stabbed people with knives in Borough Market.
Sky’s Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt commented on the assassination attempt on the PM: “It is in essence an extreme Islamist suicide plot against Downing Street. Essentially police believe that the plan was to launch some sort of improvised explosive device at Downing Street and in the ensuing chaos attack and kill Theresa May. This is something which has been pursued over several weeks at least by Scotland Yard, MI5 and West Midlands Police. It came to a head last week with the arrest of two men, by armed police, who were charged with preparing acts of terrorism.”