July 7th 2005 "7/7" bombings

Today's the 13th anniversary of the London 7/7 suicide bombings, where 56 people died, including the bombers.

At 8:49 am, three bombs were detonated on board London Underground trains within 50 seconds of each other:

The first bomb was detonated by Shehzad Tanweer on a six-car London Underground C69 and C77 Stock Circle line sub-surface train, number 204, travelling eastbound between Liverpool Street and Aldgate.

The second bomb was detonated by Mohammad Sidique Khan in the second car of another six-car London Underground C69 and C77 Stock Circle line sub-surface train, number 216, which had just left platform 4 at Edgware Road and was travelling westbound towards Paddington.

The third bomb was detonated by Germaine Lindsay on a 6-car London Underground 1973 Stock Piccadilly line deep-level Underground train, number 311, travelling southbound from King's Cross St Pancras to Russell Square.

Almost one hour after the attacks on the London Underground, the fourth bomb was detonated by Hasib Hussain on the top deck of a number 30 double-decker bus travelling its route from Marble Arch to Hackney Wick.

The police first thought that the bombers had used a military-grade plastic explosives, however they had really used acetone peroxide, also known as TATP (TriAcetone TriPeroxide). TATP is commonly used by terrorists due to it being easy to get the ingredients, since they are often used in household products. It was used in the Parsons Green bombing,  the Manchester Arena bombing and the Paris attacks, and most likely other attacks too.

Most of the bombers were Pakistani, however Germaine Lindsay was a convert from Jamaica.

7 people were killed by Tanweer, 6 by Khan, 26 by Lindsay and 13 by Hussain.

On the 21st July, 2 weeks after the bombings, there were more attempted bombings on the London underground and on a bus. 4 bombs nearly detonated, however failed to actually detonate, with only the blasting caps exploding instead of the bombs themselves. The bombs were likely made with low quality materials and no one was injured. They wouldn't have been that powerful even if they'd exploded.  The suspects, Muktar Ibrahim, Yasin Omar, Ramzi Mohammed and Hussain Osman, all fled when their bombs failed. A 5th bomb was discovered on the 23rd. Manfo Asiedu (the would-be bomber) had abandoned the device without trying to detonate it. All men were arrested. They were most likely copycats. The bombs were made using flour and hydrogen peroxide, hydrogen peroxide is used for TATP.

Mohammed Rehman and Sana Khan were arrested in 2015 for planning a copycat attack on the 10th anniversary of the bombing. Mohammed has a pro-ISIL twitter account called "Silent Bomber" and had even asked his followers to pick his target for him, the 2 targets were the Westfield Shopping Centre and the London Underground. He also had videos of him testing explosives, and had 10 kg of urea nitrate when he was arrested.

Video released by Al-Qaeda about the bombing, includes a video manifesto made by the bombers.