London attacker was radicalised by Internet and his friends - Youssef Zaghba's mother reveals all

Youssef Zaghba, a Moroccan-Italian dual national, had tried to join the Islamic State group in Syria last year and was notified to Britain as a suspect figure.

Pic courtesy: Metropolitan Police

Fagnano: Days after her son was shot dead by police while he was waging a deadly attack in London, the mother of the Italian-Moroccan jihadi on Tuesday said she had tried to keep Youssef Zaghba from falling under the sway of Islamic State ideology, but the Internet and his friends changed him.

Zaghba, 22, has been identified as the third of the three attackers shot dead by police after their attack in London on Saturday that killed seven people and left dozens injured.

A Moroccan-Italian dual national, it has emerged, had tried to join the Islamic State group in Syria last year and was notified to Britain as a suspect figure after being intercepted by Italian authorities.

His mother, Valeria Khadija Collina, a convert to Islam who is separated from the attacker`s Morocco-based father, told Italian weekly L`Espresso that she thought her son had been radicalised by a combination of online propaganda and contacts in London.

"When children make mistakes, parents always feel some guilt. But I did my best, and I think he was worn down on the inside," she said. Collina lives near the northern city of Bologna.

"We always kept an eye on who he was friends with and checked that he was not mixed up with the wrong people," she told the magazine in her only interview since her son was identified.

"But he had Internet and that is where everything came from.”

"He never let himself be led by anyone, neither in Italy, nor in Morocco, where he was studying computing at the University of Fez."

Collina said she had been concerned by the milieu in the part of east London where her son lived.

"I have been there and I did not like it. He was mixing with the wrong people."

The Italian said that her son had shown her videos about Syria before his March 2016 attempt to board a flight for Turkey, apparently with the intention of reaching its conflict-torn neighbour.

"But he never spoke about going to fight there. For him Syria was a place where you could live according to a pure Islam. The way he told it was a fantasy... transmitted to him over the Internet."

His mother added that she "always told him there were horrible things they did not show. But I wasn`t able to make him change his mind."

Collina added that she had spoken to Italy's anti-terrorism police last year after her son was prevented from traveling to the Middle East, and that they were the ones to told her on Tuesday that her son had been one of the men who carried out the attack.

Zaghba was stopped at the airport in Bologna in 2016 when he was trying to get to Syria via Turkey, city prosecutor Giuseppe Amato told broadcaster Radio24 on Tuesday.

"A person going to Turkey with a backpack aroused some suspicion, also because he told the agent who checked him that he wanted to go and be a terrorist, then he corrected himself," Amato said.

Investigators confiscated Zaghba's computer but did not have proof of a crime. They returned the device but pointed him out to London as a possible suspect, Amato said.

The British Police said Zaghba had not been a subject of interest for them or the domestic intelligence agency MI5 before he and two others launched their attack.

Meanwhile, Collina said she understood why many British imams have said they are not prepared to give her son a Muslim funeral.

"I understand that and I share their choice because it is necessary to send a strong political signal. Also to give a message to the victims` families and non-Muslims.”

"Only a mother can feel the pain of another mother. I know that nothing can be enough but I am ready to do whatever I can to bring them peace.”

"I understand that asking to be forgiven means nothing, that`s why I promise to dedicate my life to ensuring this does not happen again.”

"We must fight the ideology of Islamic State with true knowledge and I will do that with all my force, by teaching the true Islam and by trying to convince families to fill this void that can afflict their sons."

Collina said she had last spoken to her son on Thursday afternoon. Neither she nor her estranged husband had been able to reach him on Friday.

"With hindsight I realise now that he intended it as a goodbye call. Although he did not say anything particular, I felt it in his voice. Also because he usually sent messages, he didn`t always call.”

"We joked about how he was going to pick me up at the airport in London. I was due to go and meet him in ten days to celebrate the end of Ramadan together. He had just bought a new second-hand car, I asked if he was going to put little flags on it for me."

Her son and the two other attackers rammed a van into pedestrians on London Bridge on Saturday, then ran into the Borough Market area, and slit throats and stabbed people indiscriminately before they were shot and killed by police.

Italian media said Zaghba was born in the Moroccan city of Fez in 1995 but had broken off relations with his Moroccan father. He lived in Morocco for much of his life but made short visits to his mother.

He spent a total of 10 days in Italy in the past year and a half, the Bologna prosecutor said.

(With Agency inputs)