Issues Related to Establishing Causes Behind Terrorist Attacks: The Liverpool Attack Conundrum

On the 14th November 2021 Emad al-Swealmeen was in a private hire taxi when the improvised explosive device (IED) he had made detonated in the vehicle outside the Women’s Hospital in Liverpool. Although the taxi driver escaped with minor injuries, as a result of the device activating and the subsequent fire in the vehicle, al Swealmeen died. Al-Swealmeen was an asylum seeker having travelled to the UK from the Middle East in 2014, however the UK rejected his asylum claim. During the investigation the Northwest Counter -Terrorism Unit have struggled to establish the cause for this act of terrorism. Al-Swealmeen was a Muslim, but during his time in Liverpool he converted to Christianity and based on previous terrorist attacks, being a women’s hospital, the location where the IED detonated was not a target that one expected that would assist in establishing the cause behind the attack. At the time of writing the cause behind this attack has not been ascertained. This article examines the variety of causes to promote acts of terrorism, assessing the increasing difficulty counter-terrorism investigators face in determining what the cause is behind terrorist attacks.

https://counteriedreport.com/issues-related-to-est...