RISING THREAT
SPOOKS are foiling EIGHT terror attacks a year - amid signs of a "resurgent" Al Qaeda.
Stark warnings today reveal that the terror threat is rising again with an "evolving and enduring" challenge for MI5.
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75 per cent of security service time is spent battling Islamist threats as ISIS and AQ "evolve and adapt" - with evidence they are still trying to target Brits.
Domestic attacks are less predictable and getting even more difficult to detect, it says.
And Islamist groups overseas are posing a persistant and ever changing risk to Brits in the UK.
Despite huge losses of territory and personell, groups like Daesh and Al Qaeda have continued to evolve and adapt and are now on the rise again.
The 9/11 masterminds were largely driven underground and out of main territories in the Middle East after a string of attacks in the 2000s.
The terror group has largely degenerated into a fragmented, marginal body, with their retreat off the grid.
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They are focusing on embedding in local insurgent groups and building up small cells, with an intent to attack the UK.
Terror propaganda is still being dished out, designed to inspire attacks elsewhere.
They will take advantage of the pressure on our security services to try and strengthen their ability to carry out complex and targeted attacks, the report warns.
Al Qaeda will take advantage of the Western withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2022 and will exploit their own personal relationships with Taliban leaders.
They could use the state as a base to launch attack operations overseas.
Groups affliated with them are operating with more freedom and territory than ever before.
Climate change, Covid and energy insecurity have driven conflict and dissatisfaction with governments around the world.
Changing technology like the growth of the Internet and even AI is creating huge opportunities for wannabe attackers to exploit.
The contest update revealed that since the last update in 2018, there have been nine declared terror attacks and 39 disrupted attacks - around eight attempts every year.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman said in the forward to the report: "We judge that the risk is rising- and I will continue to do everything within my power to disrupt and curtail this threat. We will not flinch."
Most attackers are using easier to get hold of weapons like vehicles and knives.
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But explosives - like used in the Liverpool women's hospital attack - are still a threat.
The threats from former prisoners is still a huge risk too, it warns, with the potential to have effects for "decades" to come.
MI5 are spending three quarters of their time on the main threat to the UK, which comes from Islamic terrorism - which has been responsible for 67 per cent of attacks since 2018.
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Nearly two in three in custody for terror offences are related to the Islamist threat.
Now it is dominated by individuals or small groups outside of the main networks - making them even harder to detect.