As London faced increasing terror threats this 2014, British police are launching out extensive security probes to interrupt possible lethal plots directed from abroad, particularly Syria. Scotland Yard Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said Britain's counterterrorism network was fighting intensifying radicalization via the internet and social media.
This 2014, most senior counterterrorism officer in London has said that several terror threats to murder people on Britain's streets which are directed or inspired by terrorism overseas have already been disrupted with police activity to prevent radical attacks at its highest level for years.
According to Reuters UK, Rowley said the police had made 218 arrests so far this 2014 while dozens of vulnerable people were also being advised to de-radicalization programs. In August, London has raised its terror threat level to the second-highest classification of "severe," meaning an attack was highy considered for the first time since mid-2011.
Scotland Yards' Rowley has released one of the most comprehensive statements about the scale of London's terror threat posed by the rise of ISIS, where the terror group has come to prominence and taunted the West with depictions of brutality using social media.
Rowley's statement is the latest in a series of warnings from security officials and senior politicians of Britain.
The Guardian reported Scotland Yard's blunt evaluation comes as the security and law enforcement established an argument for better mass reconnaissance powers on communication information. However, what is distinct is that through government, police and security services, the level of terror threat's concern and activity thwart an attack on London and radicalization of young Muslims has vitally escalated this 2014, as jihadists have progressed in Syria and Iraq. Up to 500 Britons are estimated to have travelled to Syria.
Previously this 2014, Islamist terror threat has twice claimed lives on Britain's streets. The 2005 London suicide bombing attacks killed 52 people and left 750 injured while Lee Rigby was slaughtered near the Woolwich military barracks in south London in May 2013 by Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowlale who spent just over £50 buying knives from an Argos store.
Several Islamic groups have criticized the Britain's response to the terror threat from militants and say it often incites rage and hatred among London's 2.7 million Muslims by denouncing them. They also say the West's foreign policy plays a significant role. They and other specialists have cautioned that as such Britain is losing its battle against radicalization. This 2014, the threat of a terrorist attack in London is at its highest point.
