'Nearly half' of UK's Islamist terror offenders from London
Almost half of Islamism-related terror offences or suicide attacks in Britain over the last 10 years were committed by people living in London, according to a report published today.
More than two-thirds of offences from 1999 to last year were carried out by British citizens, the study by think-tank The Centre for Social Cohesion found. Forty-eight per cent of offenders lived in the capital.
Almost half (46 per cent) of offences and attacks were committed by people with south-central Asian roots, while the second and third most frequent regions of origin were east Africa (16 per cent) and north Africa (13 per cent).
After the capital, the next two most common regions were the West Midlands (13 per cent) and Yorkshire and the Humber (nine per cent).
Nearly a third of individuals behind Islamist terror offences (32 per cent) had a direct link to one or more organisations such as al Qaeda, the report found.
Seven of Britain's eight major bomb plot cells contained individuals with direct links to al Qaeda - only the failed London bombers of July 21, 2005 lacked undisputed evidence of direct contact with any proscribed organisation.
Just under a third (31 per cent) of all terror offenders attended one or more terrorist training camps, the most common location being Pakistan. Seven of the eight major bomb plot cells contained members who attended terrorist training camps.
More than two-thirds (68 per cent) of Islamist terror offences were committed by under-thirties.
The most common status was unemployed (35 per cent) - but 42 per cent were perpetrated by individuals either in employment (32 per cent) or full-time education (10 per cent).
The report concludes: "Al Qaeda and al Qaeda-inspired terrorism remains the biggest threat to the UK's national security.
"The Security Service estimates that over 2,000 people in the UK pose a terrorist threat and in March 2005 it was estimated that there were up to 200 al Qaeda-trained operatives in the UK.
"The British-based threat does not only affect the UK: a number of British Muslims have been convicted in foreign courts or have fought for (or trained with) terrorist or extremist Islamist groups abroad."
