LONDON (AP) - Britain is bracing for clashes with right-wing extremists and possible copycat terror attacks after the brutal slaying of a young soldier.
London's Metropolitan Police said more than 1,000 officers will be sent to potential trouble spots with armed response units. Only a fraction of Britain's police officers are armed. ------ Terror analysts say the attackers wanted the publicity to inspire copycat attacks, and that they are already seeing an increase in chatter on extremist sites calling for such attacks.
"One of the reasons why these guys acted in this theatrical way was because of the propaganda effect so others would be inspired to do the same thing. The nature of these attacks are that they are so easy to do, and we have definitely seen an increase in chatter calling for such things since the attack." ------ Both suspects in the soldier's killing were on the agency's radar for as long as six years. Video footage showed one of the men at a 2007 rally with Anjem Choudary, the former leader of the banned extremist group al-Muhajiroun.