Cipher Brief Expert View: ISIS Intent on Even Deadlier Ramadan This Year

Posted: June 6th, 2017

By Bruce Hoffman

Bruce Hoffman is a professor at Georgetown University and co-author of Gods, Guns, and Sedition: Far Right Terrorism in America. He served on the Independent Commission to Review the FBI’s Post-9/11 Response to Terrorism and Radicalization, and is a Scholar-in-Residence for Counterterrorism at the CIA. He serves as a senior fellow for Counterterrorism & Homeland Security at the Council on Foreign Relations and is President & CEO of The Hoffman Group.

Saturday night’s terrorist attack on London Bridge and Borough Market, the third such incident in the UK in the last three months, left seven dead and more than 30 others wounded, with 18 still in critical condition. London authorities have identified the three attackers as Khuram Shazad Butt, 27, from Barking, London, Rachid Redouane, 30, also from Barking, London, and Youssef Zaghba, 22, from East London. Butt was featured in a 2016 documentary on the British Channel 4 called “The Jihadist Next Door” and was a known figure to authorities. The Cipher Brief’s Benentt Seftel spoke with counterterrosim expert Bruce Hoffman about the recent spate of attacks in London and if it is possible to more effectively combat this threat.

The Cipher Brief: Saturday night’s terrorist attack on the London Bridge is the latest in a string of violent attacks in the UK. Could this be part of a coordinated campaign against the UK by extremists, or is it possible that it’s multiple, unconnected, lone wolves? Is there a concern that this could stem from the high number of foreign fighters who have returned to the UK?

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