British Islamic State terrorists are planning a murderous attack on a UK public gathering, The Mirror can exclusively reveal.
The chilling warning about a new ISIS terror atrocity came from Iraq’s most senior counter-terror officer, whose troops uncovered the plot.
We joined the Iraqi Counter Terror Service in Baghdad as they trained for their next SAS-style assault on the world’s most-feared terror group, also known as Daesh.
General Abdul Wahab el-Saadi warned: “We know ISIS have been talking to UK-based terrorists and we know what they are planning. It is a big attack.”
His elite special forces – dubbed the Golden Division – discovered the shocking plans for an international plot against the UK just days ago after killing dozens of militants in a desert hideout.
The general, 60, told us: “We discovered that the UK is the next target outside Iraq.
“In the past few weeks we launched major operations against Daesh or Islamic State and killed large numbers of terrorists, in one raid there were about five of them, all quite senior.
“I can tell you that from the information we found at the site of one of our recent raids the next intended terror attack will be in the United Kingdom.”
'Terrorists are British nationals'
Asked to describe the UK cell, he said: “These terrorists are British nationals.”
We have agreed not to reveal some of the specifics Gen al-Saadi shared with us for security reasons – because western intelligence agencies are working to smash the plot.
But we have passed on what he told us about the threat and it is understood that they had already been made aware by senior Iraqi intelligence officials.
We can reveal that ISIS commanders in Iraq want a specific type of public gathering to be attacked to maximise the horror.
The general told us: “The Islamic State fighters we are coming up against here are Iraqis and we no longer believe there are foreign fighters in our country.
“But we do have evidence that terrorists here are in contact with extremists in the United Kingdom, and that they are plotting.
British authorities warned
“I cannot tell what form the attack they want to launch would take as it can be a car, a knife, a gun, a bomb.
“I do not have those details for you except that it will, if it happens, be in a public place of the type I have described to you.
“We have given all of the information to the British authorities so they know about it.
“The four priority countries in Europe are the UK, France, Belgium and Germany.”
Gen al-Saadi was speaking as his soldiers trained hard in searing 46C heat at their Baghdad Airport base.
Black-clad troops stormed a mock ISIS kidnappers’ hideout, using helicopters, two dozen armoured cars and heavy machine guns.
Live explosives were set off in deafening balls of flames, imitating crazed suicide bombers setting off their deadly devices as Iraqi special forces stormed their hideout.
Explosions heard
Loud 50-calibre weapons were fired into the building from Iraq’s trademark black-painted armoured vehicles as assault troops stormed the compounds, blasting their way through doors.
We spent the past week in Iraq discovering how the country has changed in the 20 years since the controversial US-led invasion launched in 2003, triggering a bloody insurgency.
The mayhem and bloodshed that followed paved the way for al-Qaeda in Iraq to grow and eventually morph into Islamic State – the world’s most vile network ever.
Many thousands have died at the hands of ISIS and their warped followers, dozens in the UK alone.
Baghdad is now keen to claim Islamic State in Iraq has been defeated.
But an airstrike on a four-man cell was launched in the north of the capital within hours of our arrival.
Hideouts
And we can exclusively reveal that in the past few weeks Iraq’s top counter-terror units have been smashing Islamic State hideouts across the country.
Baghdad, which is thriving but still has many armed checkpoints, is throwing resources at wiping out hardline remnants of the terror group.
Referring to Iraq’s notorious Sunni triangle, Gen al-Saadi said: “Definitely there are cells from Anbar Province up to Saladin, north of Baghdad, also south of Mosul there are cells and in the Hamrin Mountains, north-east Iraq.
“A few days ago we carried an operation in Anbar and killed 22, some of them senior members of Daesh.
“Also recently we carried out a big operation in the north killing five.
“We are in the front line in this war against Islamic State and we are paying in blood to protect countries like Britain.”
The general revealed Iraq’s remaining ISIS terrorists are hiding south of Mosul and in the north east.
He confirmed that some of the cells are large, having established themselves in groups sometimes of 40 to 60.
Just days ago his troops launched a devastating desert assault on a cave complex housing one such cell.
We cannot reveal the location of that large-scale attack for security reasons.
It was a joint mission between special forces and the Iraqi Mukhabarat, or General Intelligence Directorate.
Gen al-Saadi said of the people they are fighting: “These are the hardest of the hard amongst terrorists.
“They are cruel savages, brainwashed and hell bent on committing homicide against ordinary people.
“They have to be beaten and that is what we are doing. This is the front line, in Iraq.”
ISIS sleeper cells
Just a few years ago Mirror photographer Rowan Griffiths and I watched close up as brave Golden Division troops wiped out the final remnants of ISIS in Mosul, northern Iraq.
Hardline ISIS fighters had defended their Iraqi HQ for a year against attack from Iraqi troops and Kurdish Peshmerga forces.
But after being largely defeated, several thousand went to ground in Iraq and Syria, forming sleeper cells which have recently emerged to launch sporadic attacks in both countries.
Iraqi officials have recently ordered the Golden Division to accelerate operations and ruthlessly pursue the ISIS killers before they have time to plot more attacks against the West.
The Mirror understands a detachment of UK special forces will go to Iraq in the coming weeks to help train more counter-terror troops.
The UK terror threat level, set by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre, is currently “substantial” – meaning an attack is “likely”.
Plots are probed by intelligence agency MI5 and police Counter Terror Command.
A western security source told the Mirror: “Whilst Islamic State is holed up in caves and other hideouts in Iraq and Syria, the UK is still in danger.
“The threat is manyfold, but mainly comes from small numbers of extremists radicalised or inspired by ISIS activities in places like Iraq.
“Our security agencies are working around the clock to disrupt and tackle anyone planning to launch attacks against civilians and the threat is constantly changing.
“Behind the scenes, the UK’s counter-terror teams are operating in the shadows, throwing resources at tracking down and disrupting extremist plotters.”
What is ISIS?
Islamic State was born as an offshoot of al-Qaeda in Iraq, which had grown in the mid 2000s as a reaction to the US-led Iraq invasion.
It was headed by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, whose notoriety grew in Iraq from a number of sickening beheadings.
At some point, al-Qaeda in Iraq was disenfranchised by al-Qaeda. In 2006, al-Zarqawi was killed by American troops.
Disparate jihadist groups then came together to form ISIS – shortened from its full name, Islamic State in al-Sham, referring to large parts of the Middle East.
Sunni militant Abu Musab al-Baghdadi took over in 2010 and four years later led the network in a lightning-quick take-over of swathes of Syria and Iraq.
In 2014, al-Baghdadi announced his caliphate in Mosul, the group’s Iraqi HQ, after travelling from Raqqa, the ISIS Syria HQ.
Thousands of Iraqi police, soldiers and military cadets were slaughtered in their path and the group grew from strength to strength.
This was when British jihadists such as runaway ISIS bride Shamima Begum started travelling to Syria to join up.
The group slaughtered thousands of Yazidi and Shia across its territory and launched a campaign of horror across the region, expanding into Africa and Afghanistan.
A year later, it was plotting and carrying out attacks across Europe and coalition commanders started plotting a counter-offensive.
By 2019, air strikes and ground offensives by western-friendly Syrian Kurdish forces and Iraqi Army and Kurdish Peshmerga had removed the caliphate and fighters went to ground.
Al-Baghdadi was killed in a US special forces raid that year and the group has struggled since, with several more leaders killed.
But it remains a big threat in the Middle East, Afghanistan and parts of Africa.
Previous attacks on UK
- 2010 MP Stephen Timms stabbed at a constituency surgery by British extremist Roshonara Choudhry. She is jailed for life.
- 2013 Soldier Lee Rigby is murdered in London by Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, who both get life sentences.
- 2017 Khalid Masood fatally stabs PC Keith Palmer after driving into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, killing four and injuring almost 50.
- 2017 Suicide bomber Salman Abedi kills 22 and injures 139 – many of them children – at the Manchester Arena in the deadliest attack in Britain since the 7/7 bombings in 2005.
- 2017 Three ISIS murderers drive a van into pedestrians on London Bridge before stabbing people in nearby Borough Market. Eight killed and at least 48 wounded.
- 2017 Thirty hurt in a bombing at Parsons Green station in West London by Ahmed Hassan.
- 2018 Salih Khater runs down pedestrians outside the Palace of Westminster.
- 2019 Usman Khan is shot dead by police after killing two and injuring three more at London Bridge.
- 2020 Two inmates at Whitemoor prison wearing realistic fake suicide vests stab a prison officer, causing serious injuries and harming several others.
- 2020 Sudesh Amman shot dead by police after stabbing and injuring two people in Streatham.
- 2020 Khairi Saadallah stabs people in the centre of Reading, killing three and injuring three.
- 2021 David Amess MP knifed to death by Ali Harbi Ali in Southend, Essex.
