450 jihadis on the LOOSE in UK: Fears homegrown terrorists planning copycat attacks
UP TO 450 battle-hardened jihadis are on the streets of Britain after fighting in Syria, a top counterterrorism expert is warning.
By JOHN INGHAM AND MACER HALL
Express.co.uk
Mon, Nov 16, 2015
He said Islamic State was also encouraging fanatics who cannot get to the Middle East to carry out attacks here.
His warning emerged after Friday night’s bloodbath in Paris where eight Islamic State terrorists slaughtered 129 innocent civilians and wounded another 350 – 90 critically.
Seven of the terrorists blew themselves up but one escaped and was last night the subject of a Europe-wide manhunt.
The warning about Britain’s army of homegrown jihadis was delivered by Charles Farr, director of the Office for Security and CounterTerrorism, in a speech last week, details of which emerged only yesterday.
He said that about 750 British citizens “of interest to the security and intelligence services” had travelled to Syria of whom “about 60 per cent had returned”.
Roughly 70 of the British jihadis – who include London-raised Jihadi John who specialised in beheading Western hostages – have been killed. Jihadi John himself was killed in a drone attack last week.
Mr Farr also said IS had recently adopted a new tactic, urging supporters either to go and join them or stay in the UK and “undertake attacks if you couldn’t go”.
And those who are travelling are getting “much younger” than before.
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