response to events in Iraq and Syria, where ISIS militants have seized a swath of territory.
"That means that a
terrorist attack is highly likely, but there is no intelligence to
suggest that an attack is imminent," Home Secretary Theresa May said.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, meanwhile, said it is not aware of any specific, credible threat to the United States.
British Prime Minister
David Cameron said the "root cause" of the terrorist threat in the
United Kingdom is "Islamist extremism." He said the recent killing of
U.S. journalist James Foley is clear evidence that ISIS's fight in Iraq
and Syria "is not some foreign conflict thousands of miles from home
that we can hope to ignore."
The danger that ISIS
poses now is a "greater and deeper" threat to the UK's security than the
country has ever known, Cameron said.
This is in part because
ISIS is not simply seeking refuge in a country but ruthlessly seeking
its own terrorist state and expanding, he said.
Cameron said he will soon
announce plans to stop would-be jihadists from traveling to Syria and
Iraq and to make it easier to take their passports away.
Britain also needs to do
more to stop current fighters from returning from the Middle East and to
deal decisively with those who already have returned, he said.
UK authorities estimate that 500 Britons have gone to Syria and Iraq to fight with Islamist groups.
The Prime Minister
warned against having a knee-jerk response to the threat and said a
number of tools must be deployed, the military being just one of them.
An intelligent response will involve aid, diplomacy and political influence, too, he said.
A distinction must be made between the religion of Islam and the "poisonous" political ideology of Islamic extremists, he said.
The UK has five levels
of terror threat. It had been at "substantial" since July 11, 2011. The
level is set by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Center and the Security
Service.
Source:CNN
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