Britain is facing the “greatest and deepest” threat from terrorism in the country’s history, according to Prime Minister David Cameron.
Speaking after the UK’s terror threat level was raised to “severe”, meaning that an attack is “highly likely”, Cameron said that the threat posed by ISIS could last for decades, and said that the group could turn itself into an expanding terror state “on the shores of the Mediterranean”.
Speaking to a press conference, Mr Cameron said: “What we’re facing in Iraq now with Isil is a greater and deeper threat to our security than we have known before.
“In Afghanistan the Taliban were prepared to play host to al-Qaeda. With Isil we are facing a terrorist organisation not being hosted in the country but seeking to establish and then violently expand its own terrorist state.
“We could be facing a terrorist state on the shores of the Mediterranean bordering a Nato State.
“We are in the middle of a generational struggle against a poisonous and extremist ideology that I believe we will be fighting for years if not decades.”
The Prime Minister also did not rule out UK military action against ISIS, saying they had made “specific” threats against Britain.
The Telegraph reports that this Monday, he will unveil a series of new measures to deal with the group, including stopping jihadists with British citizenship from travelling to or returning from ISIS-held territory by making it easier to confiscate their passports. He may also tighten controls on the movements of terror suspects within the UK.
The terror alert level was raised yesterday in light of the increasingly volatile situation in Iraq and Syria. Home Secretary Theresa May denied that the move was the result of any specific terror plot.
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