A man suspected of attempting to carry out a terrorist suicide bombing at an Exeter restaurant received a text message of encouragement as he set out on his mission, counter-terrorism sources claimed today.



Comment: That's funny. If the man was attempting to commit suicide, why were there two explosive devices found? A first version of this Sky News article read:
"Sky News reporter Robin Powell said emergency crews at the scene had recovered two devices, one of which had partially exploded."
Interestingly, that paragraph has now been removed from the Sky News article. We still find a caption under the photograph, though: "Two devices found in Exeter". Perhaps the Sky News editors forgot about that.

Is it the habit of 'suicide bombers' to carry a backup explosive device to 'prevent life', just as sky-divers carry two parachutes to 'prevent death'? And if so, why didn't he use his back-up bomb if the first one failed?

Somehow these explanations all seem unconvincing.



Armed police swooped on a second man in a cafe in Plymouth city centre today and arrested him in connection with the counter-terrorism inquiry. The arrest came as further details emerged of the attack and the man believed to have carried it out. Nicky Reilly, 22, was injured when a nail bomb he is alleged to have been assembling partially detonated. He had gone into the toilets on Thursday lunchtime at the Giraffe restaurant in Exeter. Counter-terrorism officials believe the attack was intended to be a suicide bombing, two sources told the Guardian.



Comment: A "nail bomb". Flashback to mental images of the London bombings in the minds of the public.



Reilly had a history of mental illness and police say he was preyed upon and radicalised.



Comment: Beware dear reader! YOU may be "preyed upon and radicalised" too!!



Detectives were looking for the person who sent the message of encouragement alleged to have been received by Reilly just before he left his Plymouth home and travelled by bus for more than an hour with the bombs.



Comment: One wonders what was the point of traveling all the way to Exeter to carry out his attack. There doesn't seem to be any significance to the target.



Firearms officers mounted a dramatic swoop on two men with a baby in a pushchair outside a cafe in Old Town Street in Plymouth. Witnesses described 11 officers armed with rifles, sub-machine guns, pistols and Tasers surrounding the men. They were taken from the scene in an unmarked police car with blacked out windows. The child who was with them was taken to a nearby police station by a female police officer. One of the men was arrested and the other was helping police with their inquiries , according to a police spokesman.

The Devon and Cornwall police investigation has been joined by Scotland Yard counter-terrorism officers and agents from MI5.

The bomb could have blown out the front of the restaurant, sources told the Guardian, but diners were saved from death or injury because Reilly bungled assembling the nail bomb which he is believed to have built himself.

It was made from sodium hydroxide, kerosene, strips of aluminium foil and nails. The device's detonator went off without igniting the main charge, which was made of commonly available chemicals. It left Reilly with facial injuries.
Counter-terrorism officials were examining whether the attempted bombing was part of a new tactic of recruiting vulnerable white men to carry out attacks.



Comment: Interesting choice of words. Hey, if you are white, don't be vulnerable! Don't let those Asian types radicalise you!



Police and the security services have found no physical evidence linking Reilly to a man arrested in the West Country last month who is alleged to have had a suicide bomb vest and other chemicals in his home to make bombs. That man, like Reilly, was white and described as vulnerable.



Comment: Another "vulnerable white". It's beginning to look like an epidemic amongst white people.



Officials believe both men made their devices themselves, though may have had assistance in being told which websites they could get bomb-making instructions from. One source asked: "Is it part of a pattern or coincidence?"



Comment: The Internet is dangerous, we tell you!



Part of the investigation is concentrating on extreme Islamist groups and "the extent to which they wooed [Reilly] and pointed him in a direction", said a well-placed source. "The chances are he was in contact with extreme individuals," the source said, and converted to a point that he developed an "extreme frame of mind", the source added.

Today police gave fresh details of Reilly's movements before the attack. Toby Melville, deputy chief constable of Devon and Cornwall police, said 54 other passengers were on the bus with Reilly which arrived at the main bus station, around 60 yards from the Giraffe restaurant, just after midday.

Though most people on the Plymouth estate where Reilly lived knew the 22-year-old had converted to Islam, few noticed a difference in his character or appearance. "He told us that he had changed his name to Mohammed Rasheed last year, but all of us English people were still allowed to call him Nicky," said Aly Turner, 17, who said he had known Reilly his whole life.

"He started hanging out with all the Kurdish people in the street. We didn't see much of him any more - he spent most of his time surfing the internet on the PC he had in his box bedroom."



Comment: Muslims and the Internet are dangerous! Don't be vulnerable!



One 68-year-old local resident, also a white convert to Islam, said Reilly had learned a few words of Arabic. "He would say hello and things like that to my wife, who is Moroccan," said the man, who did not want to be named.

Sarbaz Ahmed, 32, a Muslim Kurd who works at the local Citizens' Advice Bureau, said Reilly could not and would not have come up with the idea of the bombings on his own. "I only spoke to him after he converted to Islam, but he seemed to be very quiet and vulnerable," said Ahmed. "We have a saying in Kurdish: 'you can't clap with one hand', which fits here. Somebody or something must have incited him."

Elders at the Islamic Education Centre on Beaumont Road near the city centre, confirmed today that Reilly had prayed there a few times since it opened earlier this year.