Roundup: Britain targets terror recruiters as Westminster mourns victims

LONDON, March 22 (Xinhua) -- British Home Secretary Amber Rudd on Thursday pledged a new drive against extremist recruiters as families and friends of terror victims marked the anniversary of last year's Islamic State-inspired attack on Westminster Bridge near British Parliament.

Rudd vowed that Britain will "not be defeated" by terrorism, saying action would be taken against both Islamist and far-right radicalizers seeking to spread hatred and violence.

One aim will be to counter attempts by Islamic State to "foster a grievance narrative" by making Muslims in Britain feel under attack, she said, adding that there will be also renewed efforts to stop "racists" exploiting Islamist murders to justify retaliatory "acts of cruelty and hatred."

Rudd, who attended a special service in memory of the five victims of the attack last year at the St Mary Undercroft Chapel in Parliament, said that all forms of terror needed to be stamped out.

"Islamists and far-right terrorists share one thing in common -- they are united through their adherence to hate. We need to respond by stamping out those recruiters in the first place," she said.

Five people were killed on March 22, 2017 after Khalid Masood drove his car at people on Westminster Bridge before stabbing PC Palmer in the Palace of Westminster.

Three people were killed outright on the bridge and one died later in hospital.

Victims' families and friends, politicians and police were among those who marked the anniversary by commemorating people killed or injured a Westminster and the terror atrocities which followed.

The following month, 22 people were killed in the Manchester arena suicide bombing, eight died in the London Bridge attack, and a man was killed when Darren Osborne rammed a van into a crowd a Finsbury Park mosque.

There was also a botched attempt to bomb a subway station at Parsons Green in London, which injured 30 people.

In a signed article published by the Evening Standard newspaper, Rudd said "We need to respond by stamping out those recruiters, whether it is an Islamist terrorist disseminating material that inspires and instructs how to carry out an attack, or a racist who uses Westminster to provide justification for further acts of cruelty and hatred."

"We cannot only deal with those who have been already been drawn into terrorist activity," she wrote. "We need to intervene earlier and stop people being radicalized in the first place."

Events have been held on Thursday to remember 14 people killed in four London terror attacks in 2017.

British Prime Minister Theresa May laid a wreath of white lilies and roses at Parliament Square in memory of the victims.

Meanwhile, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan marked the anniversary with the launch of a London United campaign, which will involve #LondonUnited projected on locations of last year's terrorist attacks on the city as an act of solidarity.

"Londoners will never forget the horrific terror attacks on our city in 2017," the mayor said. "We will never forget the bravery of our emergency services and first responders who ran towards danger while urging the rest of us to run to safety."

Floral tributes were left outside the British Parliament and on the Westminster Bridge.

For his part, British Defense Minister Tobias Ellwood said, "All I could offer was there are some bad people in the world, but it's the good people that win." Enditem