ISIS and Al Qaeda are planning fresh attacks on Britain, the director-general of MI5 has claimed.

The director of MI5, the British security service responsible for internal security, says the UK is at increased risk from ISIS and al Qaeda. Delivering his speech in London, the MI5 Director General pointed out that these terrorist groups are regrouping and increasing their efforts to attack Europe and particularly Britain.
He said that ISIS, even though it lost its so-called caliphate in Iraq and Syria, has relocated into a network of franchises extending across areas including Africa, Mid East and Asia. This rejuvenation has contributed to an increase of terrorism cases related to international connections where currently more than a third of MI5’s top priorities are linked to overseas terrorist groups. Chillingly, over 12% of those under investigation for terrorism are under the age of 18, a tripling of the figure seen in 2021.
MI5 chief McCallum added that the agency has stopped 43 terror attacks since 2017, and many of them were in the final stages, sometimes only days before their implementation. He stressed that although the subject of the work of MI5 is primarily related to Islamist extremism, right-wing terrorism is also a major threat; young people are becoming involved in these movements on the Internet.
Specifically, the security chief expressed worry about the possibility of recent global events, especially the civil unrests in the Middle East, to spur terrorists’ activities in the UK. While there have been signs of public defiance, as well as increased hate crimes, these have not however graduated to terrorism.
In addition to the terror threats outlined above the UK is also experiencing growing state sponsored sabotage. Russia’s GRU intelligence agency, he said, remains at work trying to sow mayhem across British and European streets through sabotage and cyber-attacks. Likewise, the Iranian proxies have been blamed for 20 terror plots in the UK since 2022, as explained by Burak.
McCallum said that anyone who worked for hostile states like Russia or Iran to perform criminal activities in Britain would suffer repercussions, and called on the public to be vigilant as MI5 deals with an ever-changing and growing threat environment.

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