The head of Britain’s MI5 intelligence service warned on Tuesday of a “growing threat” from ISIS and other Islamist terrorists amid a changing landscape fueled by online activity.
In a rare public speech outlining the main threats facing the UK from foreign countries and armed groups, Ken McCallum, director-general of MI5, said more than a third of priority investigations conducted by his agency last month had “some form of link” to terrorists abroad. . Organizations.
The revived ISIS, also known as the Islamic State, along with hostile states and extremist individuals, have come together to create “the most complex and interconnected threat environment we have ever seen,” he said at MI5 headquarters in London.
“Islamic State today is not as powerful as it was a decade ago,” McCallum said. “But after a few years of decline, they have resumed efforts to export terrorism.”
He added that Al-Qaeda “sought to benefit from the conflict in the Middle East, calling for acts of violence.”
He said that the return of these two groups represents “the terrorist trend that worries me most.”
The caliphate that ISIS declared across Iraq and Syria collapsed five years ago, but the group has since morphed into a broader network of terrorist cells spread across Africa, the Middle East and South and Central Asia.
McCallum referred to the March attack on a Moscow concert hall by ISIS-K, the Islamic State’s affiliate in South and Central Asia, as a “brutal demonstration of the group’s capabilities.” The attack killed at least 145 people, and was the deadliest on Russian soil in 20 years.
McCallum said: “We and many European partners are monitoring activities linked to ISIS in our countries, and we are taking early action to disrupt them.”
In August, Austrian authorities arrested three teenagers accused of planning a terrorist attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna. Officials said the plot appeared to be inspired by ISIS and Al Qaeda.
This warning comes at a time when Canadian authorities have thwarted multiple plots linked to ISIS in recent months.
A father and son from Egypt accused of planning an attack in Toronto on behalf of ISIS have been arrested in July. Last month, a Pakistani national was arrested in Quebec where he was allegedly about to cross the border to carry out an ISIS terrorist attack targeting Jews in New York City.
Both arrests have drawn scrutiny into Canada’s immigration screening systems and how they did not prevent the suspects from entering the country — one even obtained Canadian citizenship.
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ISIS has intensified its propaganda in recent months, translating it into more languages and disseminating it on more channels, Colin P. Clark, research director at the Soufan Group, told Global News in a previous interview.
He said that ISIS-K is leading this mission at a time when Western countries have turned their attention to other national security priorities.
“The West has become so focused on great power competition that counterterrorism has unfortunately become kind of an afterthought,” said Clarke, a leading expert on ISIS.
ISIS has long encouraged low-sophisticated attacks, urging its followers a decade ago to use knives and vehicles as weapons.
Canada has witnessed eight attacks linked to ISIS since 2014, the year the terrorist group was formed and began calling for killing in Western countries.
MI5 has faced criticism for failing to stop deadly attacks, including the 2017 suicide bombing that killed 22 people at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester. ISIS claimed responsibility for this attack and a series of mass stabbings in London since 2017.
Iran and Russia behind ‘astonishing rise’ in state-backed plots
During his speech, McCallum also warned that Britain was facing a “staggering rise” in assassination attempts, sabotage and other crimes on UK soil by Russia and Iran, with both countries recruiting criminals to “do their dirty work”.
McCallum said the number of state threat investigations conducted by MI5 rose by 48 per cent last year, with Iran, Russia and China the main culprits.
He said his agents and police had tackled 20 “potentially lethal” Iran-backed plots since 2022 – targeting Iranians abroad who oppose the country’s regime – and warned it could expand its targets in the UK if conflicts in the Middle East deepen.
McCallum said the Russian military intelligence agency was trying to use “arson, sabotage and more” to cause “mayhem” on the streets of Britain and other European countries.
He added that Russia and Iran often turn to criminals, “from international drug traffickers to low-level fraudsters” to carry out their illegal businesses.
In January, two Canadian men with ties to the Hells Angels were charged in what US authorities described as a “murder-for-hire scheme” allegedly coordinated by Iran.
The United States also accused Iran of planning political assassinations before the presidential elections this year.
“China is different,” McCallum said, as his agents focus on disrupting Beijing’s efforts to harm or coerce Chinese citizens in Britain and engage politically. He stressed the importance of the economic relationship between the UK and China, but said there were “risks that must be managed.”
McCallum said that since 2017, MI5 and the police had foiled 43 terrorist plots in their final stages, saving “many lives”.
While about three-quarters of conspiracies stem from extremist Islamic ideology and a quarter from the far right, he said those labels “do not fully reflect the astonishing range of beliefs and ideologies we see,” drawn from the stew of “online hate.” Conspiracy theories and misinformation.”
He said young people were increasingly involved, with 13% of people the subject of MI5 terrorism investigations being under 18 – “a three-fold increase in the last three years”.
McCallum warned that the online world had made lone actors more vulnerable to indoctrination and radicalisation, and had become the primary focus of MI5 operations.
He said MI5 “has a hell of a job on its hands”.
—With files from Global’s Stuart Bell and the Associated Press
