AFP – BEIRUT: Daesh has claimed responsibility for the London attacks, which left seven people dead, an online news agency affiliated with the terrorist group said Monday. A “detachment of fighters from Islamic State (Daesh) carried out London attacks yesterday” the Aamaq news agency said, referring to Saturday’s assault which saw three men in a van plow into pedestrians on London Bridge before going on a stabbing spree.  Daesh has also urged supporters to weaponize vehicles in attacks against the West. It was the third attack in Britain this year that Daesh has claimed — after a similar attack on Westminister Bridge in March and the Manchester concert bombing two weeks ago — and one of several involving vehicles in Europe, including last year’s Bastille Day rampage in the French city of Nice.
The three attackers Saturday were wearing what appeared to be suicide belts, but the belts turned out to be fake. Investigators were working to determine whether others assisted them, Rowley said. A bystander was also wounded by the gunfire, but the civilian’s injuries were not believed to be critical. Forty-eight people, including two police officers, were treated at hospitals. Twenty-one remained in critical condition Sunday. Among the wounded were German, French and Spanish citizens, officials said. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said a Canadian was among the dead. A French national was also confirmed dead. Counterterrorism officers raided several addresses in Barking, an east London suburb, and arrested 12 people there Sunday, police said. Neighbors at the site of one raid in Barking said a man who lived there resembled one of the attackers shown in news photographs.
Armed officers also conducted a raid in the East Ham area of the city. Video showed police shouting at someone: “Get on the balcony. Stand up and show us your hands!” The rampage was the third major attack in Britain in the past three months, including a similar vehicle and knife attack on Westminster Bridge in March that left five people dead. On May 22, a suicide bomber killed 22 people and injured dozens at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, in northwest England. Grande and other stars performed Sunday night at a benefit concert for victims under tight security in Manchester. The Daesh group claimed responsibility for the Manchester bombing, but there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the London attack.