Spy chief warns of Afghanistan ‘morale boost’ for extremists in wake of Taliban resurgence
The head of MI5 has said terrorist attacks on UK soil will likely happen on his watch and that his officers and the police have foiled six “late-stage” plots during the pandemic.
Ken McCallum revealed the number of terrorist plots the Security Service has to deal with has grown since the September 11 attacks on the United States 20 years ago, but they are generally smaller and less sophisticated.
And he said that his officers are planning for the possibility of a greater security risk to the UK flowing from Afghanistan following the exit of all US, British and other allied forces.
He warned the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan will have “heartened and emboldened” some extremists.
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How can the UK combat terrorism in Afghanistan?
The comments came in a rare interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme ahead of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 atrocities in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
Recalling that day, McCallum said he and some fellow officers had turned a television on in the corner of a room they were in after the first plane hit the World Trade Centre. He had been based in Northern Ireland at the time, running agents.
“As the second plane struck, a colleague quietly said ‘Osama Bin Laden’,” the security chief said, referring to the then leader of the terrorist group al Qaeda. Bin Laden directed the attack from Afghanistan, when the previous Taliban regime had been in power.
McCallum said a second colleague then said: “‘I guess we all know what we’re doing for the next 10 years of our lives’. And so it proved.”
The 9/11 carnage triggered the US-led invasion of Afghanistan and what then President George Bush dubbed the “war on terror”.
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Fears of civil war in Afghanistan
The director general of MI5 appeared resistant to that term, though, saying it gave undue credit to extremists as soldiers when they should be treated as criminals.
He said efforts by his agency, working with MI6, GCHQ, the police and partner nations, had reduced the ability of terrorists to launch so-called “spectacular” attacks – like 9/11 or the Bataclan devastation in Paris in 2015.
But their “broad success” has resulted in a growth of “inspirational terrorism”, with groups like Islamic State using the internet to inspire and instruct lone supporters to kill.
“The numbers of plots that we disrupt nowadays are actually higher than the numbers of plots which were coming at us after 9/11,” the security chief said.
“But on average they are smaller plots of lower sophistication.”
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Giving a sense of the tempo of activity, he said MI5 and the police had disrupted 31 “late-stage” terrorist plots in the past four years, including six during the period of the coronavirus pandemic.
The majority of these plots was by Islamist extremists, though he said there was also a growing right-wing terrorist threat.
Asked whether he thought there would be an attack on UK soil during his time as director-general, he said: “It would be reckless of anyone in a job like mine ever to claim that we would be able to provide 100% security.
“We never can. Of course there are likely to be terrorist attacks on UK soil on my watch.
“We wish it were not so and we spend our lives working as hard as we possibly can with partners to stop these things happening and constantly challenge ourselves on how we can learn lessons and innovate.”
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Blair reiterates terror threat to the West
The current threat level for a terrorist attack is “substantial”, meaning an attack is likely. This is two rungs down from the highest threat level of “critical”.
On Afghanistan, the MI5 chief said the threat from that country will not change overnight given that it takes time for a terrorist group like al Qaeda to be able to direct sophisticated plots again, including building training camps and other forms of infrastructure.
But the Taliban takeover had been an overnight “psychological boost, a morale boost” to extremists, he said.
“There is no doubt that recent events in Afghanistan will have heartened and emboldened some of those extremists,” he said.
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‘We’re in a pre-9/11 era’
The Taliban has pledged not to allow their country again to be used as a launchpad for international terrorism and the MI5 chief reiterated that the UK government’s position was to judge Afghanistan’s new rulers by their actions.
Be he appeared not to be taking any chances.
“We have to plan on the basis that more risk progressively may flow our way,” he said.
“And so we, working with our partners in MI6 and GCHQ and the police and international allies, need to do everything in our power to get ahead of those kinds of risks re-emerging.”
At least 47 passengers have been killed in a plane crash at an airport in South Korea, officials have said.
Rescuers are attempting to pull people from the wreckage of the plane after it veered off a runway at Muan International Airport and crashed into a wall, becoming engulfed in flames.
The plane was carrying 175 passengers and six crew members when it attempted to land, but its landing gear was said to have not fully opened.
Pic: Reuters
Firefighters and rescue team members work in the aftermath of the crash.
Pic: Lee Young-ju/Newsis/AP
Yonhap News Agency reported that a collision with a bird may have caused the malfunction – citing officials.
Footage aired by YTN television showed the moment the plane slammed into the wall at the airport and burst into flames, after skidding off the runway without its landing gear deployed.
Further photos shared by local media showed smoke and flames engulfing much of the plane.
Officials said the blaze has been brought mostly under control and South Korea’s transport ministry said the incident happened at 9.03am local time on Sunday (shortly after midnight in the UK).
Jeju Air flight 7C2216, a Boeing 737-800 jet, was on its way back from Bangkok, Thailand, at the time of the crash.
South Korea’s emergency office said two people had been safely rescued, one passenger and one crew member.
Among those on board were 173 South Koreans and two Thai people, local media reported.
So far almost 50 people are said to have died.
Pic: Reuters
A rescue team prepares at Muan Airport after the crash.
Pic: Maeng Dae-hwan/Newsis/AP
Thick smoke above the airport after the crash.
Pic: Reuters
All domestic and international flights from Muan International Airport have been cancelled in light of the fatal crash.
Acting President Choi Sung-mok ordered a rescue effort, his office said.
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World
Director of one of last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza detained in Israeli military raid
The director of one of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza was arrested in a raid the Israeli military said was targeting a Hamas command centre.
The Hamas-run Palestinian health ministry said Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, was held by Israeli forces on Friday along with dozens of other staff and taken to an interrogation centre.
Sky News has spoken to patients who say they were forced outside and told to strip in winter weather after troops stormed the hospital.
Israel‘s military said it “conducted and completed a targeted operation” as the hospital was being used as a command centre for Hamas military operations.
Dr Hussam Abu Safiya. File pic
An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) statement said more than 240 terrorists were detained, some of whom tried to pose as patients or flee using ambulances.
Among those taken for questioning are the hospital’s director, who it said was suspected of being a “Hamas terrorist operative”.
Around 15 people involved in last year’s 7 October attack on southern Israel, in which around 1,200 people were killed and 250 others abducted, were also detained, the IDF said.
The Israeli military said hundreds of patients and staff were evacuated to another hospital before and during the operation, and it had provided fuel and medical supplies to both hospitals.
Militants fired on its forces and they were “eliminated”, while weapons, including grenades, guns, munitions, and military equipment, were also seized in the raid, it said.
The Israel-Hamas war has killed more than 45,400 Palestinians, over half of them women and children, and wounded more than 108,000 others, according to the health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
The hospital has been hit multiple times over the past three months by Israeli troops waging an offensive in largely isolated northern Gaza against Hamas fighters it says have regrouped.
The health ministry said a strike on the hospital earlier this week killed five medical personnel.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) said it was “appalled” by Friday’s raid, which it said put northern Gaza’s last major health facility “out of service”.
“The systematic dismantling of the health system and a siege for over 80 days… puts the lives of the 75,000 Palestinians remaining in the area at risk,” a statement said.
The Israeli military said in a statement: “The IDF will continue to act in accordance with international law regarding medical facilities, including those where Hamas has chosen to embed its military infrastructure and conduct terrorist activities in blatant violation of international law.”
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