London, Oct 8 (EFE).- The British secret service MI5 and the Police have dismantled 43 “advanced attack plans” since 2017, the director of that agency, Ken McCallum, said this Tuesday when reporting on the state of the terrorist threat in the United Kingdom.
McCallum explained in a speech at the Counter-Terrorism Operations Center (CTOC) in London that terrorism, along with potential aggression from autocratic states such as Russia, Iran and China, currently present the “most complex environment ever seen.”
The manager reported that 13% of all those investigated for terrorism in this country are under 18 years of age, three times more than three years ago, and it is particularly the extreme right that is recruiting them.
Regarding the frustrated attacks since 2017, he detailed that “the conspirators were trying to get hold of firearms and explosives in the last days of planning to commit mass murders.”
McCallum noted that while the threat split remains around 75% Islamic extremist and 25% far-right, “a lot has changed” from the past, such as the profiles of perpetrators.
Many of these terrorists have only “a tenuous understanding of the ideologies they claim to profess” and it is more difficult for officers to quickly determine “whether an act of violence is ideologically motivated or driven by another factor, such as mental health.” , kept.
According to the head of MI5, focused on internal espionage – as opposed to MI6, external – today an attacker may not have connections with other terrorists and may have drawn on internet material, disinformation or conspiracy theories. Often there is no precedent and no one claims responsibility for the events, he noted.
McCallum stressed that it is more important than ever to maintain “proportionate and legal” access to communications given that many plans are hatched on the web.
In relation to the threat posed by foreign States, he specified that investigations increased by 48% in the last year.
The targets of these states are “sensitive government information, our technology, our democracy, journalists and human rights defenders,” he added.
Both Russia and Iran increasingly opt for acts of aggression on British soil through mediators, such as British and other private agents or criminals.
The manager recalled that more than 750 Russian diplomats were expelled from Europe since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and since January of that year MI5 and the Police responded “to twenty plots backed by Iran.”
Regarding China, McCallum acknowledged that it is a “different” case, since there are important economic ties with the United Kingdom and it is up to the Government to set the strategy.
In any case, the security forces thwarted attempts by the Chinese state to coerce people, especially of Chinese descent, and to interfere in British democracy and access restricted information, he said. EFE