Security
was dramatically stepped up for police officers and the Jewish
community in Britain yesterday amid fears of a terror attack.
Intelligence chiefs are worried that Islamist fanatics could try to copy the atrocities in France last week that cost 17 lives.
Four Jewish people and three police officers were among the dead.
Heavily armed police officers have been deployed in greater numbers because of the ISIS terror threat
Fears
of similar carnage in the UK intensified on Thursday after commandos in
Belgium killed Islamic State fanatics who wanted to behead a policeman
or a judge. The plot held chilling echoes of the murder of Fusilier Lee
Rigby outside his barracks in Woolwich.
In other developments:
- David Cameron and Barack Obama pledged to stand shoulder to shoulder in the fight against terrorism;
- Intelligence sources said as many as 20 sleeper cells with 180 fanatics could be ready to strike in Europe;
- Nearly 800 people have been put on a Home Office programme targeting potential extremists;
The Duchess of Cambridge has reportedly been given enhanced security on a public appearance.
Mark
Rowley, the UK’s senior counter-terrorism officer, said: ‘The global
picture of terrorist activity does give us heightened concern about the
risk to the Jewish community.’
The
Met assistant commissioner said the murders at a kosher supermarket in
Paris, coupled with a rise in anti-semitic rhetoric from extremists,
justified more patrols in areas with large Jewish populations, including
London, Leeds and Manchester.
Some 263,000 people in Britain describe themselves as Jewish. The country’s 70 Jewish schools have been put on high alert.
The
Community Security Trust, which advises Jewish institutions and groups
on safety, said: ‘We spend an inordinate amount of money on security,
particularly on our schools – as we should. Obviously there’s a change
in the threat level because there could be people who might be
perversely inspired by what they saw happen [in Paris].’
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Metropolitan Police Assistant
Commissioner Mark Rowley, pictured, confirmed that extra officers would
be available to protect high-risk locations such as Jewish schools as
well as potential threats against police
Mr Rowley
added: ‘We are also considering what further measures we might put in
place to enhance the security of police officers, given some of the
deliberate targeting of the police we have seen in a number of countries
across Europe and the world.’
He said the authorities were also looking at the safety of other minority communities.
Speaking
after talks with President Obama at the White House, Mr Cameron said:
‘It’s very important to learn the lessons from anything happening
elsewhere in Europe.
‘Could
that happen here? What steps should be taken? So the police have
announced today that they’ll be stepping up patrols, particularly to
protect the Jewish community.
‘We
have to be incredibly vigilant and look at all of these risks,
particularly risks to police officers themselves and take every action
that we can.’
The
Prime Minister used the talks to press for tougher action to require
internet firms to join the fight against terror by alerting authorities
to suspicious exchanges online.
An
official report last year concluded that Facebook failed to pass on
information that could have prevented the murder of Fusilier Rigby and
the site was a ‘safe haven for terrorists’.
Investigators across Europe are working around the clock to target returning Islamic State fighters.
The
UK security services believe around 600 British Muslims have travelled
to Syria and Iraq to join the so-called jihad, with around half now back
home. Counter-terror chiefs fear they may carry out ‘lone wolf’
attacks.
Professor
Michael Clarke, director-general of the Royal United Services
Institute, a defence think-tank, said the chance of marauding attacks by
armed gunmen was ‘likely to increase’.
Last
year 3,934 potential extremists were referred to a Government
deradicalisation programme and 777 were assessed as such a danger that
they needed to take part.
We can't monitor all 300 fanatics say deluged security chiefs
ANALYSIS BY JAMES SLACK
Top of the list of EU countries whose citizens have travelled to fight in Syria and Iraq stand France, Britain and Belgium.
In
the past week, two of those have witnessed terrifying scenes as jihadis
swearing allegiance to Islamic State fought gun battles with the
police. So is Britain next?
According
to the security services, 600 extremists have travelled from the UK to
fight in Syria. This compares with around 700 from France and 400-plus
from Belgium.
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Edward Snowden, pictured, inflicted huge damage on the capability of the security services to track fanatics
Of
the 600 Britons, half are now back home. Thirty have been arrested and
charged. It is not practically possible for MI5 to monitor the rest
round-the-clock. More than 200 are known to be living in and around
London.
A
surveillance operation of this level requires 30 officers per suspect,
plus manpower to monitor their electronic communications.
Such
resources do not exist. David Cameron recently announced an extra
£130million for the intelligence agencies, but it takes up to two years
to train an MI5 agent.
Case
managers will have to make hugely difficult decisions over which to
watch most closely. In the majority of cases, they will get the judgment
right.
At
least four major plots have been foiled in the past year and since July
2005 there has been only one successful attack – the gruesome murder of
Fusilier Lee Rigby.
Inevitably,
MI5, like its counterparts in France and elsewhere, will sometimes call
it wrong. Fusilier Rigby’s killers had appeared repeatedly on the
Security Service radar but weren’t considered a priority.
So
had the 7/7 bombers. And Mohammed Ahmed and Yusuf Sarwar, both 22 and
serving 12 years in jail for terror offences, were arrested on their
return to the UK from Syria only after Sarwar’s mother had reported them
to the police.
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Terrorists are increasingly aware of how to avoid the attentions of the various international security services
The
threat from the jihadis takes two forms. Some remain in contact with
Islamic State and Al Qaeda leaders in Syria who are directing their
attacks.
These
groups are believed to be planning ‘spectacular’ mass-casualty attacks,
such as bringing down an airliner or a Mumbai-style bomb or gun attack.
The
second type of threat is far more crude and likely to be attempted by a
lone individual or a pair who will have either returned from Syria or
been inspired by jihadi propaganda. Attack methods could include a
hit-and-run, the beheading of a ‘high-value’ target or a mass-stabbing.
The Lee Rigby-style scenario is the one that security officials consider
most likely.
Already,
one plot has been foiled and is before the courts. Such attacks are
fiendishly hard to detect. Trying to buy explosives or an automatic
rifle is likely to alert the security services. Grabbing a kitchen knife
from a drawer will not.
In these instances, the best hope of foiling such a plot is if the protagonists talk about their intentions online.
However,
in the wake of the Edward Snowden revelations, fanatics increasingly
know how to avoid giving their secrets away on the internet. Indeed, it
is hard to imagine a worse time for Snowden – now hiding in Russia – to
inflict such huge damage on the capabilities of the security services.
