16-11-21, 08:29
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#4
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re: UK Threat Level SEVERE -SAS Swoop on Terrorist Lair After Hospital BOMB Attack:
Threat Level Severe After Hospital BOMB Terror Attack
National TERROR Threat Raised as Counter-Terrorism Police Believe Dead Attacker to be Emad al-Swealmeen
-Suspect Reported to be Christian Convert
32-year-old is said to have changed name to Enzo Almeni before failed asylum application in 2014
‘Utter Miracle’ of Taxi Drivers’Escape With Life
The Guardian UK 16 NOV 2021.
Emad al-Swealmeen aka Enzo Almeni, who police ‘strongly believe’ blew himself up outside Liverpool women’s hospital.
Photograph: Malcolm Hitchcott
A suspected suicide bomber blew himself up with a homemade device outside a maternity hospital in Liverpool, forcing the national terror threat level to be raised for the first time in months amid fears of another potential attack.
Counter-terrorism police last night said they “strongly believed” the dead man to be Emad al-Swealmeen, 32, who had travelled in a taxi to Liverpool Women’s hospital from an address he had recently rented a few miles away.
While police said they could not be sure if the hospital was the intended target, or if the device he had constructed had ignited prematurely, NHS officials last night advised all hospitals to review their security arrangements.
In a statement issued on Monday night, DCI Andrew Meeks urged anyone with information about the dead man to come forward immediately.
“Our inquiries are very much ongoing … and now that we have released his name any information that the public may have about al-Swealmeen, no matter how small, may be of great assistance to us.”
The Guardian understands al-Swealmeen had previously changed his name to Enzo Almeni. He was reported by the Daily Mail to have converted to Christianity from Islam in the last few years.
A suspected terrorist who blew himself up outside Liverpool Women’s hospital at the weekend has been named as 32-year-old Emad al-Swealmeen.
Counter Terrorism Policing North West said they “strongly believe” al-Swealmeen was the passenger who died when a taxi exploded shortly before 11am on Sunday. According to reports, al-Swealmeen is believed not to be British-born and to have had Syrian and Iraqi heritage.
He is said to have converted to Christianity after moving to the UK from the Middle East and was later briefly taken in by Christian volunteers Malcolm and Elizabeth Hitchcott in Liverpool.
Al-Swealmeen had changed his name by deed poll to Enzo Almeni, in honour of Italian race car legend Enzo Ferrari, to sound more western on his asylum application, which subsequently failed in 2014, Hitchcott told the Daily Mail.
Hitchcott told the newspaper: “He first came to the cathedral in August 2015 and wanted to convert to Christianity. He took an Alpha course, which explains the Christian faith, and completed it in November of that year. That enabled him to come to an informed decision and he changed from Islam to Christianity and was confirmed as a Christian by at least March 2017, just before he came to live with us. He was destitute at that time and we took him in.”
Pictures posted on Hitchcott’s Facebook profile showed the suspect smiling and posing alongside the couple during a walk a few years prior, including a picture showing al-Swealmeen during a service at Liverpool’s Anglican Cathedral.
Speaking to the BBC, Elizabeth Hitchcott said: “We’re just so, so sad. We just loved him, he was a lovely guy,” adding she and her husband were “very” shocked by the incident.
Searches are under way at the Rutland Avenue address and a second address in Sutcliffe Street, which officers have said al-Swealmeen previously lived at, and police said they had recovered “significant items”.
“We continue to appeal for any information about this incident and now that we have released his name any information that the public may have about al-Swealmeen, no matter how small, may be of great assistance to us.”
Detectives have declared it a terrorist attack but said the motive was unclear.
Official sources previously confirmed to the PA news agency the suspect was not previously known to the security services.
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