Day 3 is here, and has links to the previous days’ posts. The Daily Mail is also calling him the Poppy Day bomber.
[AlAhram] The man who died in a botched kaboom in the northern English city of Liverpool on Sunday had planned the blast for at least seven months, police said Wednesday.Iraq-born Emad Al Swealmeen, 32, rented a property in the city in April and had made "relevant purchases" for his bomb since "at least" that time, said Russ Jackson, who heads counter-terrorism policing in northwest England.
Al Swealmeen's improvised device went off in the back of a taxi outside a Liverpool hospital moments before Britannia marked Remembrance Sunday last weekend.
He was killed in the fireball, while the quick-thinking taxi driver escaped with minor injuries after reportedly locking Al Swealmeen inside his cab.
"A complex picture is emerging over the purchases of the component parts of the device, we know that Al Swealmeen rented the property from April this year and we believe relevant purchases have been made at least since that time," said Jackson.
"We have now traced a next of kin for Al Swealmeen who has informed us that he was born in Iraq."
The failed asylum seeker suffered from bouts of mental illness that will "form part of the investigation and will take some time to fully understand" said Jackson.
Al Swealmeen was taken in by Elizabeth and Malcolm Hitchcott, a Christian volunteer couple in Liverpool, for eight months from 2017 as his appeal for refugee status played out.
Malcolm Hitchcott told ITV News that Al Swealmeen spent time in a mental institution after being arrested with a knife in an incident in central Liverpool.
CONVERSION QUESTIONS
The Times newspaper reported that the improvised device contained TATP -- the same explosive favoured by the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
group that was used in the 2015 Gay Paree attacks and the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017.
The blast was the second terror-inspired attack in Britannia in the last month, after a British MP was stabbed to death as he met constituents in southeast England in October.
The two incidents prompted the government on Monday to raise the terror threat level from "substantial" to "severe" -- the second-highest -- meaning an attack was "highly likely".
It has also brought Britannia's asylum policy under scrutiny, at a time when London is seeking to tighten its borders, particularly against
Home Secretary Priti Patel said Al Swealmeen had been able to exploit Britannia's "dysfunctional" immigration system and stay in the country, despite having been rejected for asylum, British media reported.
His conversion to Christianity has also prompted discussion about whether some asylum seekers were using the process to bolster their case to stay in Britannia.
Liverpool Cathedral, where Al Swealmeen was baptised in 2015 and confirmed in 2017, said it had "robust processes" in place to determine a person's "genuine commitment".
The Liverpool hospital bomber spent seven months experimenting with different explosives while plotting his attack, it emerged last night.
Emad Al Swealmeen, 32, started building a bomb factory at a rented bedsit as early as April, according to police.
Traces detected at the property show he bought a range of chemicals capable of making more than one type of explosive, including one used by the 7/7 London bombers.
Detectives are trying to untangle a ’complex picture’ of chemical purchases made both online and in shops.
Armed police raided the bomb factory in the Sefton Park area of Liverpool shortly after Al Swealmeen accidentally went
kaboom!at Liverpool Women’s Hospital on Remembrance Sunday.
The next day, bomb disposal officers carried out a controlled explosion in the park, and Rutland Avenue, where the explosives factory was located, remains closed off.
Yesterday afternoon officers also extended a cordon around Sutcliffe Street in Kensington, central Liverpool, where Al Swealmeen is thought to have lived.
Officers from the bomb squad were on the scene and a counter-terror police front man said several suspicious packages had been found.
Residents were ordered to stay indoors and others forbidden from returning to their homes. They were instead directed to a nearby primary school for shelter.
Forensic tests are still being carried out on the taxi which went
kaboom!with Al Swealmeen inside. It was confirmed last night that he died of injuries sustained in the blast and from the subsequent fire.
Giving an update last night, Assistant Chief Constable Russ Jackson said Iraqi-born Al Swealmeen started buying chemicals in April, or even earlier.
Security sources said there was little to suggest the Christian convert was ideologically motivated — one theory is that he suffered a mental health crisis possibly triggered by his failure to win asylum.
He had been sectioned in 2015 after being arrested for waving a large knife and threatening to kill himself by jumping off a bridge in Liverpool city centre.
Al Swealmeen, who wanted to be a pizza chef, also spoke to church leaders about suffering from depression.
A shopkeeper told the Mail he was ’obviously not right in the head’ and described how the motor racing fan, who adopted the name Enzo Almeni after the Ferrari legend, had threatened with a knife one of his staff staying at the same hostel.
Related:
Liverpool: 2021-11-16 Day 2: Liverpool attack suspect named as Emad al-Swealmeen, reported to be Christian convert
Liverpool: 2021-11-15 Good Morning
Liverpool: 2021-11-15 The hero cabbie who 'stopped Poppy Day carnage' by 'locking suicide bomber in taxi and leaping out seconds before blast after passenger asked to go to Remembrance Day event but then said to go to hospital': MI5 join terror probe as cops arrest three
Liverpool: 2021-11-16 Day 2: Liverpool attack suspect named as Emad al-Swealmeen, reported to be Christian convert
Liverpool: 2021-11-15 Good Morning
Liverpool: 2021-11-15 The hero cabbie who 'stopped Poppy Day carnage' by 'locking suicide bomber in taxi and leaping out seconds before blast after passenger asked to go to Remembrance Day event but then said to go to hospital': MI5 join terror probe as cops arrest three