UK terror chief says IS planning ‘indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilians’

Terrorism watchdog Max Hill says Britain facing a level of threat from terrorists since dark days of IRA

UK terrorism watchdog Max Hill
UK terrorism watchdog Max Hill

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) are planning “indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilians” on a scale similar to those perpetrated by the IRA 40 years ago, the UK’s new terrorism watchdog has warned.

In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Max Hill, the UK government's new independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, said British citizens are facing a level of threat from terrorists not seen since the IRA bombings of the Seventies.

Hill, who this week was unveiled as the new independent reviewer of terrorism legislation after forging a career as one of Britain’s leading terrorism prosecutors, said Islamists were targeting UK cities and said there was an “enormous ongoing risk which none of us can ignore”. 

Hill said the scale of threat facing Britain today was not seen since the Seventies.

“It is possible to point to distinctions in terms of the mindset, organisation and strategy of different terrorist groups and therefore it would be wrong to draw a simple comparison between Irish republicanism and the ideology of so-called Islamic State,” Mr Hill said. 

“But in terms of the threat that’s represented, I think the intensity and the potential frequency of serious plot planning – with a view to indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilians of whatever race or colour in metropolitan areas – represents an enormous on-going risk that none of us can ignore. 

“So I think that there is undoubtedly significant ongoing risk which is at least as great as the threat to London in the Seventies when the IRA were active on the mainland,” Hill told the newspaper.

The country’s terrorism watchdog also raised concerns about the hundreds of British extremists who fled to fight in Syria and Iraq with Isil but are set to return after a string of military defeats. 

“It’s an enormous concern that large numbers – we know this means at least hundreds of British citizens who have left this country in order to fight – are now returning or may be about to return,” Mr Hill said. 

“Of course the imminent fall of Mosul and perhaps the prospective retaking of Raqqa are both bound to lead to a higher instance of returning fighters. Does that mean that the British public need to be immediately alarmed at a spike in terrorist activity within this country? 

“The answer to that is, I don’t know, but it doesn’t follow as a matter of fact that those who chose to go to live or fight abroad will bring that fight back to this country.”

In January, Ben Wallace, the UK’s minister of state and security said the country’s intelligence chiefs believe that the terrorist group has an “aspiration” to carry out a mass casualty chemical weapons attack against Britain.v