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UK Warns of Wide-Scale ‘ISIS’ Terrorism | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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A tourist looks at an armed police officer’s weapon in central London, Britain January 02, 2016. REUTERS/Neil Hall


London- Max Hill, the UK’s new independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, warned that ISIS fighters were planning “indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilians” on a scale similar to those staged more than 40 years ago by the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

In his interview with Sunday Telegraph, Hill said extremists were targeting cities and posed “an enormous ongoing risk, which none of us can ignore”.

He went on: “So I think there is undoubtedly significant ongoing risk that is at least as great as the threat to London in the 70s when the IRA was active.”

The IRA abandoned its armed struggle for an end to British control of Northern Ireland and unification with Ireland in a 1998 peace deal. More than 3,600 people were killed, including at least 1,000 members of the British security forces, during the sectarian conflict that began in the late 1960s.

British security officials have repeatedly said that ISIS extremists, who are losing ground in Iraq and Syria, will target the UK.

Hill said: “It’s an enormous concern that hundreds of British extremists who have left this country in order to fight with ISIS are now returning or may be about to return.” He warned that some British teenagers, whose ages exceed not 14, are being dragged towards the radical intellect through videos of extremism and hatred.

On Monday, Hill was named in place of David Anderson as Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation — British Interior Minister Amber Rud praised him for his “wealth of experience and legal expertise.”

As part of his new role, Hill will be submitting on an annual basis a report to the parliament on the terrorism legislation laws in the UK.