London attackers were identified as Khuram Shazad Butt, left, Rachid Redouane and Youssef Zaghba.
Police have identified the third London Bridge terrorist attack suspect as 22-year-old Youssef Zaghba, a Moroccan-born Italian who was on the radar. According to officials, Zaghba was previously stopped by security forces on suspicion he was bound for Syria and reportedly notified U.K. authorities.
He and Khuram Shazad Butt and Rachid Redouane made up the trio of jihadis who killed seven people on Saturday night during a van and knife attack in London. Butt, a 27-year-old asylum-seeker, came to the United Kingdom (UK) from Pakistan as a refugee with his parents. Redouane, 30, claimed to be Moroccan and Libyan.
All three were shot dead by police minutes after the deadly terror assault began.
In March 2016, was stopped at Bologna Airport bound for Istanbul and Italian intelligence operatives notified British and Moroccan authorities to tell them they believed he intended to travel across the Turkish border to ISIS-controlled territory in Syria.
Yet, in a press release on Tuesday, British police said Zaghba “was not a police or MI5 subject of interest.” The same is not true of Butt.
“Khuram Shazad Butt was known to the police and MI5. However, there was no intelligence to suggest that this attack was being planned and the investigation had been prioritized accordingly,” British police said in a statement. “The other named man, Rachid Redouane, was not known.”
The Islamic State (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the London attacks on Saturday, the third to hit the United Kingdom in less than three months. The attacks come less than two weeks after the Manchester bombing at an Ariana Grande concert that killed 22 and roughly two months after another Islamic terror attack shook the U.K. Parliament.
Prime Minister Theresa May previously said police have identified all the London Bridge attackers and, while one person was released without charge, 11 people remain in custody in connection with the attack.
Great Britain, gearing up for snap parliamentary elections on Thursday, had just lowered its official terror threat from “critical.”
