Al-Qaida 'grooming' British children

Al-Qaida is deliberately "grooming" children and young people to carry out terror attacks in Britain, the head of UK intelligence agency MI5 warned today.

In his first public speech since becoming director-general in April, Jonathan Evans said the security service was facing "the most immediate and acute peacetime threat" in its 98-year history.

Addressing a Society of Editors Conference in Manchester, he said the number of individuals in Britain identified by MI5 as having links with terrorism had risen from 1,600 last year to at least 2,000.

And he said they suspected there could be a similar number again who they did not know about.

Mr Evans warned they were part of a "deliberate campaign" being waged against Britain by al-Qaida - which was extending its influence across the Middle East and Africa.

"Terrorist attacks we have seen against the UK are not simply random plots by disparate and fragmented groups," he said.

"The majority of these attacks, successful or otherwise, have taken place because al-Qaida has a clear determination to mount terrorist attacks against the United Kingdom.

"This remains the case today, and there is no sign of it reducing."

Mr Evans highlighted the way al-Qaida was targeting vulnerable young people as terrorist recruits and warned of the need to protect children from exposure to "violent extremism".

"As I speak, terrorists are methodically and intentionally targeting young people and children in this country," he said. "They are radicalising, indoctrinating and grooming young, vulnerable people to carry out acts of terrorism.

"This year, we have seen individuals as young as 15 and 16 implicated in terrorist-related activity."