July 7, 20 years later: The 2005 London bombings and lessons in retrospect
Twenty years ago, a series of explosions rattled London, England, generating widespread panic throughout the city. Four Islamist extremists detonated bombs on three London Underground trains and a double-decker bus, killing 52 civilians and injuring over 700 others. It was the deadliest attack in the UK since the 1998 Pan Am 103 bombing, and has since become known by its shorthand, “7/7”.
7/7 bombings account
Beginning in the early morning on July 7, 2005, four homegrown British terrorists sympathetic to Middle Eastern extremist groups like Al-Qaida carried out sequential suicide bombings throughout London’s vast mass transportation network.
At 8:50 a.m., three bombs exploded within seconds of each other on trains traveling between Aldgate and Liverpool Street, Edgware Road, and Russell Square stations. An hour later, at 9:47 a.m., a fourth bomb exploded on the upper deck of a bus in Tavistock Square.
The individuals responsible were later identified as Mohammad Sidique Khan, Shehzad Tanweer, Hasib Hussain, and Germaine Lindsay, a group of British Muslims from West Yorkshire.
Some research suggests these men were radicalized by the United States and its allies’ invasion of Iraq, seemingly indicating their actions were at least in some small part politically motivated. Many experts believe they were influenced by Al-Qaida, if not outright working at their behest.
Today, a monument in Hyde Park commemorates those who lost their lives.
Security community’s response
Following this devastating attack on the UK’s capital, intelligence agencies wasted little time in launching a full-scale investigation. Notable services like MI5, MI6, city police, FBI, and INTERPOL collaborated on analyzing the event, its perpetrators, and broader, global implications for national security.
According to British intelligence, two of the terrorists were already on a persons of interest list at MI5. But due to limited resources, investigations into their potential for harm had ultimately been deprioritized.
Some of the bombers left video statements, explaining their actions in detail. Al Jazeera aired one of these segments two months later, wherein Khan lauded other terrorist figures like Osama bin Laden. He also warned of further attacks if what he described as targeted persecution and atrocities against Muslims continued.
Tanweer recorded a similar videotape, although his was more critical of the British government and what he alleged were anti-Muslim policies.
The 7/7 bombings were a wake-up call for the UK and much of Europe about the threat of homegrown terrorism. They altered the way security services approached domestic threats in the years that followed.
Some progressive changes took effect shortly after 2005, including expanded surveillance powers, increased investment in the intelligence community, and the creation of the UK’s counter-terrorism strategy, CONTEST. Also notable, the UK Underground adopted new radio technologies to better coordinate response and also realigned their command structure to mirror that of the country’s emergency services.
Modern-day relevance
The 7/7 London bombings weren’t a fluke. Over the last decade, an average of 24,000 people per year perished at the hands of a violent terrorist. While still a rare cause of death, attacks have not subsided since 2005. If anything, they appear to have become more common and even more disastrous.
A recent example one could point to is the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel. From this incursion into an open-air music festival, 215 persons of all ages were kidnapped, 1,200 died, and over 2,000 sustained critical injuries. At the time of writing, the Israeli government is still working to recover all hostages abducted during the chaos.
Scholars like retired professor Dr. Ariel Merari point to a growing trend of psychological disturbance as one reason for an uptick in extremist activity.
Her clinical study examining a potential link between mental illness and extremism—specifically martyrdom—concludes that many from this cohort display avoidant personalist behaviors, severe depression, and suicidal tendencies. It’s fair to say organizations like the Islamic State and Hamas target these suffering personality types, leverage their condition to provoke them into action with nefarious goals.
Pitch in
Preventing terrorism starts at the lowest common denominator: the individual. Each of us has a role to play in helping our organizations and communities deter mass causality-causing violence by being able to identify threats and act on them accordingly.
The Chameleon Group is a company of experts in this field. We help clients from across the globe conduct end-to-end security through threat assessments, counterterrorism training, cybersecurity, red teaming, and much more.
We encourage you to build better competency in security by attending our Training. We are hosting the Security Executive Forum on November 11 and 12, 2005, in London. Attendees will hear about field-tested strategies and best practices that can immediately enhance operational effectiveness. Learn more about the event and its benefits by visiting our website.
