Taliban takeover could fuel more terror plots, fears British spy chief

LONDON/GENEVA: The Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan has “heartened and emboldened” extremists and could lead to the return of major “Al-Qaeda-style” attack plots against the West, the head of Britain’s domestic intelligence agency said on Friday.

MI5 director general Ken McCallum said the UK could face “more risk” because of the withdrawal of Nato troops and the overthrow of the internationally backed Afghan government.

“Terrorist threats tend not to change overnight in the sense of directed plotting or training camps or infrastructure - the sort of things that Al-Qaeda enjoyed in Afghanistan at the time of 9/11,” McCallum told the BBC in an interview. “What does happen overnight, even though those directed plots and centrally organised bits of terrorism take a bit longer to rebuild... you can have a psychological boost, a morale boost to extremists there or in other countries.

“So we need to be vigilant both for the increase in inspired terrorism, which has become a real trend for us to deal with over the last five to 10 years, alongside the potential regrowth of Al-Qaeda-style directed plots.”

Britain has seen several violent attacks by Islamist-inspired extremists in the past two decades. The deadliest was on July 7, 2005, when four suicide bombers killed 52 commuters on London subway trains and a bus.

McCallum said UK authorities had disrupted 31 attack plots in the past four years, by both Islamic and far-right extremists. He said it was hard to say whether Britain was safer 20 years after the 9/11 attacks.

Taliban’s crackdown on protests intensifying: UN

The UN rights office has said that the Taliban’s response to peaceful marches in Afghanistan has become increasingly violent, with authorities using live ammunition, batons and whips and causing the deaths of at least four protesters.

“We have seen a reaction from the Taliban that has unfortunately been severe,” Ravina Shamdasani, UN rights spokesperson, told a briefing in Geneva, saying the United Nations has documented four protester deaths from gunfire.