UK terror threat akin to 1970s IRA bombings

Max Hill, the newly appointed independent reviewer, has warned that Britain is facing a level of threat from Islamic State militants not seen since the IRA bombings of the 1970s. Hill made the comments in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, warning that Islamist extremists were planning ‘indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilians’ on a scale similar to those staged more than 40 years ago by the IRA. At the time Britain was facing repeated attacks from Irish republicans that saw pubs, train stations and Parliament targeted by bombs. In the interview, Hill said: 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.   “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.” “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. “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.”