Almost 30 terrorist plots involving more than 1,600 individuals are being tracked by British authorities, the head of Britain's MI5 spy agency said in a speech released Friday.
Many of the suspects are homegrown British terrorist who are plotting suicide attacks and other mass-casualty bombings, said Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller.
Since the July 2005 London transit bomb attacks, MI5 has spoiled five major terrorist plots, reported Manningham-Buller.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair backed his spy chief's assessment and said the threat "will last a generation."
On Thursday, Manningham-Buller brought the same message to a small group of academics in London.
We are "aware of numerous plots to kill people and to damage our economy," she said. "What do I mean by numerous? Five Ten? No, it's nearer to 30 that we currently know of."
She said MI5 knows of about 200 cells, involving more than 1,600 people, which are "actively engaged in plotting or facilitating terrorist acts here and overseas."
The threat involves "resilient networks, some directed from al Qaeda in Pakistan, some more loosely inspired by it, planning attacks including mass casualty suicide attacks in the U.K."
The comments are the first public estimate to be made by the head of MI5.
"Britons aren't openly jittery but I think there is a subtle nervousness," CTV's London Bureau Chief Tom Kennedy said Friday.
Manningham-Buller said the radicalization, especially among young people, is a huge problem in the battle against terrorism.
"It is the youth who are being actively targeted, groomed, radicalized and set on a path that frighteningly quickly could end in their involvement in mass murder of their fellow U.K. citizens,'' she said. "Young teenagers are being groomed to be suicide bombers.''
On July 7, 2005, 52 people were killed when four suicide bombers attacked three subway trains and a bus in London. Three of the four bombers were born in Britain.
In August 2006, British officials foiled an alleged plot by a British terrorist cell to blow up trans-Atlantic airliners in mid-flight. More than a dozen British suspects are awaiting trial.
On Tuesday, Dhiren Barot, a British Muslim convert, was sentenced to life in prison for planning to blow up U.S. financial landmarks and London targets.
A spokesperson for the Muslim Council of Britain, Inayat Bunglawala, called the statistics "a very sober warning." However, he said that is was necessary that "British Muslims are seen as a partner in the fight against terrorism and not some sort of community in need of mass medication."
Bill Durodie, senior lecturer in risk and security at the U.K. Defence Academy, said releasing the statistics may exaggerate the terrorist threat facing Britain.
"It's easy to pull out alarmist headlines," said Durodie. "What we're seeing here on a whole are lone individuals (and) small groups."
http://www.navig8.to/?http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20061110/britain_terror_061110/20061110?hub=CTVNewsAt11
