Believing that the Taliban's resumption of power in Afghanistan could have "emboldened" extremists in the country, the head of British internal intelligence, Ken McCallum, said on Friday that the terrorist threat in the United Kingdom remained "real and lasting ”and that the Taliban's resumption of power in Afghanistan may have“ emboldened ”extremists in the country.

The MI5 boss told the BBC his organization had, with police cooperation, "foiled 31 late-stage bombing plans in Britain" over the past four years with "mostly Islamist plans", but also a "growing number" of attack projects coming from the extreme right.

A "boost to the morale of extremists"

Ken McCallum added that six plans for an attack have been foiled in the past two years, which span the period of the coronavirus pandemic.

"So the terrorist threat to the United Kingdom, I am sorry to say it, is a real and lasting thing", he summed up, on the eve of the commemoration of the twenty years of the attacks of the jihadist organization Al-Qaida against the World Trade Center in New York, the deadliest attacks in history.

Asked about the Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan last month, the MI5 director general said this had probably "emboldened" extremists.

"There is no doubt that the events in Afghanistan will have encouraged and emboldened some of these extremists, and staying alert to this kind of risk, as well as other threats, is what my organization is focusing on," he said. he declared.

The terrorist threat does not change "overnight", he said, but there may be a "boost to the morale of extremists already present here or in other countries".

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  • September 11th

  • Terrorism

  • Jihadism

  • Afghanistan

  • UK

  • World