No Script

Please Wait...

Al-Ahed Telegram

Daesh Losses in Syria, Iraq Not Reducing Terror Threat in UK

Daesh Losses in Syria, Iraq Not Reducing Terror Threat in UK
folder_openEurope... access_time6 years ago
starAdd to favorites

Local Editor

The threat of Daesh-linked [the Arabic acronym for the Takfiri ‘ISIS/ISIL' group] terror attacks in the UK continues to rise despite heavy military losses for the group in Iraq and Syria, the UK's most senior police officer has warned.

Daesh Losses in Syria, Iraq Not Reducing Terror Threat in UK

In this respect, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Cressida Dick said six plots have been thwarted in the last four months alone, expecting the figure to rise.

"Since March this year, the tempo has changed," she told delegates at the annual Lord Mayor's defense and security lecture, listing the "ghastly" attacks that left 36 people dead and 200 injured in Westminster, Manchester, London Bridge and Finsbury Park.

"Progress on the ground in Syria and Iraq does not necessarily translate into a reduction in threat here."

Her caution came after triumphant statements from Government ministers following Iraqi forces' victory over Daesh in Mosul.

For his part, Defense Secretary Michael Fallon welcomed the terrorists' "defeat in a city that was ground zero for their so-called caliphate", while Theresa May commended the bravery and sacrifice of Iraqi forces but conceded Daesh's ideology "defeated through military intervention alone".

Dick said 13 lethal terror plots were foiled from June 2013 to March this year, amid increasing numbers of arrests seeing 340 suspects detained in the past two years.

"We must not deny the scale of this challenge," she added, saying MI5 is monitoring 3,000 individuals across the UK who are assessed as posing the biggest threat.

There are 20,000 other former subjects whose risk remains subject to review and the number is expected to rise, as the national terror alert level remains at "severe".

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

Comments