A terrorist attack in the UK linked to Islamic extremism is 'almost inevitable' in coming months, security chiefs have warned.
Ministers
are reportedly being briefed daily by security officials who have
warned of a 'step change' in the threat posed by terrorism since the
rise of the so-called Islamic State insurgency.
Scotland
Yard and MI5 believe they have foiled three plots in London in the past
few months, two of which were said to have been urgent interventions to
stop terrorists ready to strike.
Tight security: Armed police patrol Whitehall during the Remembrance Sunday ceremony at the Cenotaph
Sniffing for trouble: Security was tight this year amid dire warnings of possible impending terror attacks
An
unnamed source told The Times the killing of Fusilier Lee Rigby last
year had taught extremists 'they only need a kitchen knife and a mobile
phone to carry out a high-impact attack.'
The
warnings come after tight security at Remembrance Sunday, with the
Queen appearing at the Cenotaph in Whitehall after it was locked down by
dozens of visible armed police.
A
judge yesterday extended the detention of four suspects arrested in
connection with an Islamist terror plot just two days earlier.
Counter-terror
police seized the men, aged 19 to 27, on Thursday night at locations
across west London and High Wycombe in the Thames Valley area, Scotland
Yard said.
It
is understood the men were plotting an attack on British soil. The
timing of the arrests raised fears that Remembrance Sunday events in
London were alleged targets, but sources told The Times the Queen was
not a target.
Tensions
have been raised by a slew of terror arrests amid fears British
intervention against the Islamic State insurgency in Iraq could motivate
a string of new radicals in the UK.
Last
month a 21-year-old man, a 32-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman were
arrested by anti-terror police in three separate probes all linked to
Syria.
Officers
searched two properties in Bedfordshire, two in west London and one in
Hackney, north east London after raids over the last three weeks.
Four
terror suspects were also charged with plotting to kill policemen and
soldiers in London drive-by shootings earlier last month.
Tarik
Hassane, 21, Suhaib Majeed, 20, Nyall Hamlett, 24, and Momen Motasim,
21, all from London, appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court amid
tight security as they were charged with an Islamic State-inspired gun
plot.
It was alleged to have been formulated following a fatwa by a senior ISIS terrorist.
Despite
the chilling warnings and spreading climate of fear, the head of the
UK's armed forces has urged Britons not to let terror fears 'stop the
British way of life'.
General
Sir Nicholas Houghton said Britain must not 'succumb to any sense that
there is a terrorist threat' and should carry on as normal.
General Sir Nicholas Houghton said terrorist fears must not stop Britons from leading their normal way of life
Speaking
ahead of the Remembrance Sunday events, the Chief of the Defence staff
told BBC One's Andrew Marr Show: 'I think the mood is definitely
different this year but the biggest thing that makes the mood different,
I think, is the intensity and the poignancy about it born of the
aggregation of the 100 years commemoration of the First World War, the
70 years of D-Day, I think the end of combat operations in Afghanistan.
'But,
certainly the proximity of the sense of threat for this weekend, which
has intensified the nature of the security that's attendant on it, has
sort of contributed to quite a different feel about this year.'
Earlier
this month, senior police officers and MPs said there was likely to be a
significant rise in the number of armed police at the Remembrance
Sunday and Armistice Day commemorations in London due to increased fears
of a terror attack.
The
arrests come a few months after the national terror threat level in the
UK was raised from substantial to severe, meaning a terrorist attack is
'highly likely'.
This assessment is separate from the evaluation concerning police officers.
The
Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) raised the level against a
backdrop of increasing concerns over hundreds of aspiring British
jihadis travelling to Iraq and Syria to learn terrorist 'tradecraft' and
fight alongside terror groups such as Islamic State (IS).
Although
there is currently no link to Syria or IS, fears were raised when IS
fighters encouraged supporters in Western countries to 'rise up' and
commit acts of terror in their home countries.
No comments:
Post a Comment