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The bombs that struck at the heart of London today came as no surprise to authorities.
For more than a year, police and politicians have been warning that a terrorist strike against the British capital was highly probable, largely due to Britain's support of the US-led invasion of Iraq.
As far back as March 2004, in the aftermath of the bombings in Madrid which left 191 dead, the then commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police, Sir John Stevens, and the city's mayor, Ken Livingstone, both went on record to say it was "inevitable" that one day London would be the target of terrorist attacks.
Livingstone said: "It would be miraculous if, with all the terrorist resources arranged against us, terrorists did not get through, and given that some are prepared to give their own lives, it would be inconceivable that someone does not get through to London".
And with alarming prescience, Stevens warned: "This is not just about the railways, the Underground, it's about buses, roads, pubs, nightclubs and the like."
He estimated that around 100 people trained by al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden were at large in Britain and as many as 200 people could be involved in planning terrorist attacks.
With authorities taking an increasingly tough line on Islamic fundamentalists, anti-terrorist police issued repeated warnings that the city was at risk. In December Stevens revealed that police had foiled a series of Madrid-style attacks - similar to those which struck on Thursday.
Prime Minister Tony Blair echoed Stevens' warning in February when he spoke of "hundreds of people" possibly engaged in preparing terror strikes against Britain.
A poster information campaign was launched in March to make Londoners aware of the potential danger to the capital's public transport system. In April, Stevens' successor, Sir Ian Blair, also warned of the possibility of an attack after Algerian Kamel Bourgass, a suspected member of al-Qaeda, was sentenced to 17 years in prison for his part in a plot to attack a train with ricin poison after one of the biggest anti-terror operations ever mounted in Britain.
"There's real clarity now that al-Qaeda affiliates are targeting Britain," Blair said.
The general election campaign in May saw British intelligence services involved in a massive security operation to protect candidates and public alike from the perceived terrorist threat.
The most significant attack on British interests abroad in the wake of the invasion of Iraq came in November 2003 when four suicide bombings, claimed by a wing of al-Qaeda, targeted two synagogues, the British consulate and a British bank, killing 63 people, including the British consul-general.
