UK fears new attack

Threat to Britain behind 440 extra troops in Afghanistan

BRITAIN has deployed 440 more troops to Afghanistan amid concerns about a “Manchester-style” terror attack plotted from the country.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said he was “consistently” receiving intelligence showing that terrorist groups in Afghanistan had links back to Britain.

He admitted that Islamic State fanatics operating out of the country now posed a “real threat” to the safety of people on British streets.

And he said an enduring threat remained from AlQaeda, the terrorist group behind the 9/11 attacks.

Speaking during a visit to the country, Mr Williamson said: “We are consistently seeing terrorist groups operating here in Afghanistan – evidence of them links back not just to the United Kingdom but to the whole of continental Europe.

“What we see is a real threat posed by these groups to the United Kingdom and we have got to be acting as we are to ensure that we do not see future Manchester-style attacks.

“This is why we have chosen to act as we have, by increasing the troop numbers here in Afghanistan, because we recognise the fact that we are dealing with groups such as IS, such as Al-Qaeda, which wish to do Britain harm.”

There are fears IS jihadists in Afghanistan could attempt terrorist attacks such as the Manchester Arena bombing in May last year, in which Salman Abedi detonated a shrapnelladen bomb that killed 22 people and wounded 139 after an Ariana Grande pop concert.

The extra 440 British troops takes the total in the country to about 1100. Their mission is to train local Afghan forces. British combat troops pulled out of the country in 2014. This year has also seen a spike in civilian deaths, including more than 100 killed by a bomb in an ambulance in Kabul in January.

IS has established a new foothold in Afghanistan as its “caliphate” has crumbled in Iraq and Syria.