Terror in the UK: A timeline of recent attacks

iStock/Thinkstock(LONDON) — The deadly suicide bombing in Manchester, England, that killed 22 people and injured 59 others at an Ariana Grande concert Monday night is one of several terror attacks that have taken place in the U.K. in recent years.

The British people have endured politically-motivated attacks, attacks by right-wing extremists and attacks by Islamic extremists over the last few decades.

April 1999: David Copeland bombings

David Copeland was convicted in 2000 of killing three people and injuring 139 others after perpetrating a series of nail-bombing attacks that took place across the month of April 1999, according to reports by BBC News.

He was given six life sentences for his crimes.

Copeland, who belonged to far right-wing fascist groups according to a report in The Independent, targeted black, South Asian and gay Londoners in his plot.

July 7, 2005: London Underground attack

Four suicide bombers armed with “rucksacks full of explosives” attacked civilians traveling on London Underground trains as well as a double-decker bus on the morning of July 7, 2005. More than 50 people were killed and hundreds of others were injured, according to a report by BBC News.

Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, Shehzad Tanweer, 22, Hasib Hussain, 18, and Germaine Lindsay, 19, carried out the attacks, according to the BBC.

The attackers were motivated by Islamic extremism, and Khan recorded a video prior to carrying out the attacks in which he praised al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden.

May 22, 2013: Murder of Lee Rigby

Two Islamic extremists savagely murdered Lee Rigby, a British soldier and veteran of the Afghanistan War, just outside an army barrack, telling eyewitnesses the killing was “as an eye for an eye … because Muslims are dying by British soldiers every day,” according to ABC News reporting from that time.

The killers, Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, first ran over Rigby in a car then dragged him into the middle of the street in the South London neighborhood of Woolwich.

There, they hacked him to death with large knives, according to eyewitnesses.

Adebolajo and Adebowale were sentenced to life in prison in December of 2013, according to a report by BBC News.

Dec. 5, 2015: Leytonstone knife attack

Shortly after the Paris attacks in November of 2015, a 29-year-old man, Muhaydin Mire, was restrained and arrested for attempted murder after trying to stab people in the Leytonstone metro station with a knife.

The attack left a 56-year-old man in the hospital with serious but not life-threatening knife injuries, and a second man suffered minor injuries but did not require medical assistance, police said, according to an ABC News report at the time.

Mire, a former Uber driver with a history of mental health issues, had an interest in the terror group ISIS, according to a report in The Standard.

He pleaded guilty to attempted murder in 2016.

June 16, 2016: Assassination of Jo Cox

Jo Cox, a British member of Parliament, was killed in broad daylight after a town hall meeting at a library in West Yorkshire, England, one week prior to the Brexit referendum, according to ABC News’ reporting from last summer.

Her killer, Thomas Mair, was a longtime supporter of a U.S.-based neo-Nazi organization, according to a watchdog group that tracks extremists. The Guardian reported that he had an interest in Nazism.

Mair is serving a life sentence for the crime.

March 22, 2017: Westminster Bridge attack

Three people were killed, including a police officer, and at least 29 people were hospitalized following an attack in London that took place earlier this year.

The attack began when a driver struck pedestrians and three police officers on Westminster Bridge, London’s Metropolitan Police said.

Richard Tice, a witness, told ABC News that he saw injured people lined up along the pavement. According to Tice, the car jumped the curb, knocking over pedestrians.

The car then crashed into the fence around the Houses of Parliament, and a man armed with a knife attacked an officer who was guarding Parliament, according to police.

The suspect, 52-year-old Briton Khalid Masood, was shot and killed by police.

ISIS called Masood “a soldier of the Islamic State.”

May 23, 2017: Manchester suicide bombing

ISIS claimed responsibility for the deadly explosion at the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, Monday evening. Twenty-two people died and 59 others were injured in the attack.

The attacker died at the scene after using an improvised explosive device, officials said, and it’s unclear at this time to what degree, if any, he received assistance from outside actors.

Copyright © 2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.

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