Russian military intelligence (GRU) is trying to cause "chaos“ in Britain and Europe, the head of British counterintelligence MI5 said today, while the growing threat from "Al Qaeda" and "Islamic State” is his biggest concern related to terrorism, Reuters reported, writes bTA.
In his annual speech, MI5 Director General Ken McCallum also accused Iran of being behind "plot after plot" on British soil.
McCallum said state threat investigations have increased 48% in the past year, and Russia and Iran have turned to criminals, drug traffickers and stooges to do the "dirty work".
"You must realize that MI5 has a hell of a lot of work,” he said.
Outlining the threats to Britain, McCallum said that since March 2017, MI5 and British police had intercepted 43 plots in their final stages, some of which were in the final days of planning mass murders.
Terrorist trends that, according to the head of the spy service, particularly worry him is the strengthening of the threat from "Al Qaeda", which is trying to take advantage of the conflict in the Middle East, and especially from the "Islamic State", which has renewed its efforts to export terrorism, citing the attack on a concert hall in Moscow in March.
So far, however, the conflict in the Middle East has yet to lead to large-scale violence by extremists at home, he said.
Of those being investigated for involvement in terrorism, 13 percent are under the age of 18, which is three times more than in the past three years, he said.
Much of McCallum's speech, however, was devoted to state threats from Russia and Iran.
Despite the expulsion of more than 750 Russian diplomats from Europe since Russia invaded Ukraine and the expulsion of the last Russian military intelligence officer from Britain earlier this year, he said it was "remarkable” how the Russian state turns to proxies to do its job.
"The GRU in particular is on a permanent mission to generate chaos on British and European streets: we have seen arson, sabotage and more. Dangerous actions carried out with increasing recklessness,” McCallum said, declining to elaborate.
Since January 2022, the MI5 chief also said, his service and the police have responded to 20 Iranian-backed plots that potentially posed deadly threats to UK citizens and residents.
"We have seen plot after plot here in the UK which is unprecedented in pace and scale,” he said.