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Parsons Green bomb suspect said it was his "duty to hate Britain"

JURORS in the trial of a teenager accused of an attempted London Underground bombing on Monday (13) heard that he had said it was his "duty to hate Britain" well before the botched attack in September.

Ahmed Hassan, an 18-year-old Iraqi asylum seeker, arrived in Britain in October 2015, two years before he allegedly left a bucket of explosives that partially exploded on a Tube train at Parsons Green station, injuring 30 people.


Katie Cable, a lecturer and mentor at a suburban college where Hassan studied media, told London's Old Bailey court that he had said he blamed Britain for the death of his parents in Iraq.

"It's my duty to hate Britain," she said he had told her.

Cable testified that she believed his father was blown up and his mother had been shot.

When Hassan came to Britain, he told authorities he was in fear of the Islamic State group and that it had taken him by force and trained him "how to kill" when he was in Iraq.

But the court also heard that the lecturer had even alerted a government terrorism prevention scheme of her concerns after she saw a message in August 2016 on his phone reading: "IS has accepted your donation".

Cable testified that Hassan talked about Tony Blair and expressed "anger" at events in Iraq, telling her "the British" were responsible for his parents' death.

Hassan has denied the charge of attempted murder and causing an explosion on a packed train on September 15.

The attack, claimed by IS, was the fifth time Britain had been targeted in a six-month period.

© AFP

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  • Martin Parr, acclaimed British photographer, died at home in Bristol aged 73.
  • Known for vivid, often humorous images of everyday life across Britain and India.
  • His work is featured in over 100 books and major museums worldwide.
  • The National Portrait Gallery is currently showing his exhibition Only Human.
  • Parr’s legacy continues through the Martin Parr Foundation.

Martin Parr, the British photographer whose images of daily life shaped modern documentary work, has died at 73. Parr’s work, including his recent exhibition Only Human at the National Portrait Gallery, explored British identity, social rituals, and multicultural life in the years following the EU referendum.

For more than fifty years, Parr turned ordinary scenes into something memorable. He photographed beaches, village fairs, city markets, Cambridge May Balls, and private rituals of elite schools. His work balanced humour and sharp observation, often in bright, postcard-like colour.

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