UK Police Undergoing Stop and Search
British Prime Minister David Cameron has raised England’s terrorist threat alert on Friday to its second-highest level in light of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) posing a direct threat. Government officials have stated that this has been England’s greatest security risk.
Although there is no direct evidence that the ISIS will launch a direct terrorist attack on the United Kingdom, the government has elevated its international threat level to that of “severe” which simply means that a preemptive strike is highly likely. The Prime Minister, David Cameron had this to say: "What we're facing in Iraq now with ISIL (one of the group's names is Islamist State of Iraq and the Levant; the latter refers to the eastern Mediterranean region) is a greater and deeper threat to our security than we have known before."
Cameron added that he was "absolutely satisfied that ISIL ... would make specific threats to the U.K." It was the first time since 2011 that the United Kingdom had been categorized as a nation with high likelihood of terrorist attack by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Center (JTAC).
The change to the level of terrorism in England was made right after the release of the video that showed the killing of American news reporter James Foley by a masked militant with a knife. The identity of the journalist’s murder who many intelligence officials believe to be a British rap artist that left the country not too long ago to join ISIS sparked requests for additional security to prevent more British citizens from travelling to the Middle East to fight for the ISIS.
The U.K. is not the only country is on the alert for a direct strike from the Islamic State. Other European nations and even the United States have expressed that ISIS is perfectly capable of undertaking such operations abroad. A White House spokesperson said that, "This is a threat that the United States has been focused on. We've been coordinating closely with our allies, both the Brits, but others in Europe, about countering this threat and mitigating it."
Meanwhile, no specific reason was given as to why JTAC has raised Britain’s level of threat of terrorism to that of “severe”.
So far, around 500 British citizens are reported to have traveled to the Middle East to join the Jihads. British police have reported that about 250 of them have returned. Prime Minister David Cameron announced that the government will be releasing a new set of laws prevent its citizens from leaving the country to travel to Iraq and Syria, particularly the 2.7 million Muslims who are living in the British Isles. Cameron told the press, “This will include further steps to stop people travelling, with new legislation that will make it easier to take people’s passports away.”
