The Islamic State terror group is planning “direct devastating and more complex attacks,” the head of the British secret service is set to announce on Monday.
MI5 chief Andrew Parker will warn of twin threats from Islamic State and Russia, in a landmark speech to European security chiefs in Berlin, where he will also stress the importance of post-Brexit security ties.
Parker, who has a 35-year career in intelligence, will say that although Islamic State has been defeated from major areas of Syria and Iraq, it is still planning future attacks in Europe, where there have been 45 such attacks since 2016, the Guardian newspaper reported.
Parker will thank European security agencies for their support in the investigation following the Manchester bombing that claimed 22 lives nearly a year ago. He will also disclose that MI5 and police have thwarted 12 plots since the Westminster terror attack of March 2017 which claimed five lives.
This brings the total number of disrupted attacks since 2013 to 25.
Parker will say he is “confident about our ability to tackle these threats, because of the strength and resilience of our democratic systems, the resilience of our societies and the values we share with our European partners.
“European intelligence cooperation today is simply unrecognizable to what it looked like five years ago,” he will say, adding: “In today’s uncertain world we need that shared strength more than ever.”
His speech comes days after Islamic State claimed credit for a stabbing attack in Paris that killed one person and injured four others.
No comments:
Post a Comment