An explosion in Liverpool, England, on Sunday may have been a terrorist attack.
A taxi exploded outside of Liverpool Women’s Hospital, killing a passenger and injuring the driver. The regional counterterrorism unit responsible for the northern English city has taken the lead in the investigation. Three men in their 20s have been arrested thus far, and armed police (police are not traditionally armed in the U.K.) have established cordons on two city streets. Later on Sunday, a reporter for the Liverpool Echo newspaper noted the arrival of police negotiators at one scene, suggesting that a standoff may be underway.
Many details remain unclear.
This Sunday is Britain’s memorial day, so counterterrorism concerns will have been escalated. The deployment of an Army bomb disposal unit to the hospital and the assigning of counterterrorism officers with the investigative lead bears attention. This indicates evidence of an artificially generated explosion (versus, say, a fuel leak) and suspicion related to at least one of the vehicle’s occupants. That said, images of the burning taxi show that the windows of nearby parked cars were left intact. That would seem to rule out a successful explosive detonation unless the explosive was very low strength or incendiary in nature.
The arrest of three men?
It may be precautionary in that they are somehow linked to the address registered to the taxi or its occupants. Following terrorist attacks, U.K. authorities will arrest persons with connection to the suspected attacker in an abundance of caution. This is to mitigate the risk of a broader cell being involved. The arrests may also reflect a decision to move in on suspects in an existing counterterrorism investigation. U.K. counterterrorism services have a significantly greater demand on their investigative resources than the FBI. This means that levels of surveillance are prioritized on a scale of highest to lowest threats (the threat spectrum situates primarily on Islamist extremists aligned or inspired with/by ISIS, al Qaeda, and Kashmiri groups and on dissident Irish Republican groups). But there is an inherent risk of miscalculation in this process. Many terrorists who have previously carried out attacks in the U.K. are already known to authorities.
We’ll have to wait for more information before gaining a better understanding of what has occurred.
