Islamic State terrorists are planning mass casualty attacks in Britain according to the head of MI5 – but is he merely manoeuvring to gain new powers?
Speaking in London, MI5 director general Andrew Parker said the current level of threat was the highest he had seen in a career spanning 32 years, and that the danger from domestic jihadis showed no sign of abating, says the Daily Telegraph.
In the past 12 months alone, he claimed, his agency has thwarted six terror plots in the UK and another seven abroad.
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Delivering the Lord Mayor of London's annual defence and security lecture, Parker said: "We are seeing plots against the UK directed by terrorists in Syria, enabled through contacts with terrorists in Syria and inspired online by Isil's sophisticated exploitation of technology."
He added: "On top of that, in a range of attacks in Europe and elsewhere, this year we have seen greater ambition for mass casualty attacks. All of this means that the threat we are facing today is on a scale and at a tempo that I have not seen before in my career."
However, he has been accused of scaremongering in a ploy to obtain more powers for MI5. Sky News's political correspondent Robert Nisbet accuses Parker of "frantic spadework" ahead of the government's investigatory powers bill, which was announced in the Queen's Speech.
"By outlining the scale and nature of the threat, Britain's security services are hoping to bounce MPs into agreeing greater powers to eavesdrop on suspicious communications," writes Nisbet.
Last month, Parker appealed for more powers to fight terrorism, reports the New York Times, arguing: "It's in nobody's interests that terrorists should be able to plot and communicate out of the reach of any authority."
