Two of the three knife-wielding assailants from the Saturday night terrorist attack on the London Bridge have been named.
As per CNN, British police have identified them as Khuram Shazad Butt, 27, and Rachid Redouane, 30. The third assailant has also been identified but has not been named, as of yet. Twelve other people were arrested, but have since been released by the Met Police without charges
The attackers, who rammed a van into crowds on the bridge and killed seven people while wounding 48 others, were shot dead. The three terrorists were also wearing suicide belts, which turned out to be fake.
Butt, according to CNN, was a British citizen and was born in Pakistan. He worked for Transport for London, which "oversees the city's public transportation system," but left in October. He was in the process of training to become a customer service assistant.
It is being reported that the police and MI5 were aware of him before the attack but had no reason to suspect him of being a terrorist. Although he was a low priority, he did appear in a Channel 4 documentary, called The Jihadis Next Door, according to The Telegraph.
In the documentary, he could be seen planting a black Islamic State flag in Regent's Park, located in the center of London. He belonged to a banned group called al-Muhajiroun.
Redouane, who also went by the name of Rachid Elkhdar and claimed to be of Moroccan and Libyan descent. He was unknown to police, but as per The Telegraph, Redouane lived nearby Butt.
Source: independent.co.uk