UK fears ‘spectacular’ Islamic State attacks as group wages war on Western lifestyles

The UK is facing the threat of “enormous and spectacular attacks” by Islamic State (IS), as the extremist group aims to wage war on Western lifestyles, the national head of counter-terrorism has warned.

Tue, 08 Mar, 2016 - 00:00

Margaret Davis

Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner, Mark Rowley, said that while in the past few years the Islamist group has called on would-be jihadis to attack police and the military, their plots are now broader “plans to attack Western lifestyle”.

He said: “In recent months, we’ve seen a broadening of that, much more plans to attack Western lifestyle, and, obviously, the Paris attacks in November.

"Going from that narrow focus on police and military as symbols of the state to something much broader.

“And you see a terrorist group which has big ambitions for enormous and spectacular attacks, not just the types that we’ve seen foiled to date.”

He added: “You see a terrorist group that, whilst on the one hand has been acting as a cult to use propaganda to radicalise people to act in their name ... you also see them trying to build bigger attacks.”

Mr Rowley, who is the national policing lead for counter-terrorism, said that IS is trying to get supporters who have received military training in Syria into northern Europe, to stage attacks.

The counter-terror boss said the “shared effort to look for any possible links of those networks, or other networks that have reached the UK, is obviously a massively high priority”.

In the last three years, the number of arrests of terrorist suspects has risen by 57%, compared to the previous three years. Around half led to a charge.

Last year, just over three-quarters (77%) of those arrested were British nationals, 14% were female, and 13% were aged 20 and under.

The number of girls and women, and the number of teenagers, is a new trend, Mr Rowley said.

“That would not have been the picture that one would have seen a few years ago.

"That is an indication of that radicalisation, the effect of the propaganda, and the way the messages of Daesh (IS) are resonating with some individuals,” he added.

Scotland Yard has seen 20 families, and 50 young people, go through family court proceedings, over concerns about radicalisation, in the past year.