A major terrorist attack is being planned on a UK public gathering by British ISIS fighters, The Mirror has revealed.
The security threat warning came from Iraq’s most senior counter-terror officer, whose troops uncovered the plot.
The Mirror is in Iraq where they have joined the Counter Terror Service in Baghdad as they trained for their next SAS-style assault on the 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.”
Special forces 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, said: “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.”
Asked to describe the UK cell, he said: “These terrorists are British nationals.”
The Mirror agreed not to reveal some of the specifics Gen al-Saadi shared for security reasons as western intelligence agencies are working to smash the plot.
It is understood that they had already been made aware by senior Iraqi intelligence officials.
ISIS commanders in Iraq want a specific type of public gathering to be attacked to maximise the horror.
The general said: “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.
“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.
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.
The Mirror discovered how Iraq has changed in the 20 years since the controversial US-led invasion launched in 2003, triggering a bloody insurgency that paved the way for al-Qaeda in Iraq to grow and eventually morph into Islamic State.
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 their arrival.
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.”
Iraq’s remaining ISIS terrorists are hiding in desert caves throughout the Sunni triangle and in the north west, the general revealed. 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. 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.”
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - Sign up to our daily newsletter here.
