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World News

Islamic State is an "army" says Christian analyst

by Hannah Tooley

Simon Barrett, a Christian and Analyst on the Middle East and Terrorism was speaking on Premier's News Hour after the head of MI5 revealed six attempted terrorist atrocities have been thwarted in the UK in the last year.

Commenting on the MI5 revelations, Mr Barrett told Premier that the UK is facing a threat unlike any before it: "The Islamic State or ISIL is actually an army - they have mass territory, mass amount of wealth, and the means and the ability to carry out more deadly terrorist attacks than we've seen previously."

But he stressed that the fact there has not been a major attack in ten years means the security measures are working: "I think the indication is that our intelligence services deserve a lot of credit and I think as Christians we need to pray for our security services because they're doing a tremendous job of keeping us safe."

The head of MI5 is calling for more powers to investigate online due to the Internet's broad reach.

Andrew Parker, director general of the Security Service, said the "scale and tempo" of the danger is now at a level he has not seen in his 32-year career.

Mr Parker said: "We are seeing plots against the UK directed by terrorists in Syria; enabled through contacts with terrorists in Syria; and inspired online by Isil's sophisticated exploitation of technology.

"It uses the full range of modern communications tools to spread its message of hate, and to inspire extremists, sometimes as young as their teens, to conduct attacks in whatever way they can."

He has been speaking days before the Government is expected to publish a draft of landmark legislation covering spies activities in the digital era.

Listen to Premier's Antony Bushfield speak to Simon Barrett here:

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