Taliban takeover could fuel terror plots against West: UK spy chief

The Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan has "heartened and emboldened" extremists, according to the chief of Britain's domestic intelligence service, and might lead to the resumption of significant "al-Qaida-style" terrorist plots against the West.

The withdrawal of NATO forces and the fall of the internationally supported Afghan government might put the UK at "greater risk," according to MI5 Director General Ken McCallum.

In a rare interview with the BBC, McCallum said: "Terrorist threats don't change overnight in terms of directed plotting, training camps, or infrastructure-the kinds of things that al Qaida had in Afghanistan at the time of 9/11."

"But what does happen overnight, even though those directed plots and centrally organised bits of terrorism take a bit longer to rebuild... Overnight, you can have a psychological boost, a morale boost to extremists already here, or in other countries. So we need to be vigilant about the increase in inspired terrorism, which has become a real trend for us to deal with over the last five to 10 years, alongside the potential regrowth of al-Qaida-style directed plots, " he added.

In the last two decades, Islamist-inspired extremists have carried out a number of violent acts in the United Kingdom.

On July 7, 2005, four suicide bombers killed 52 people on London subway trains and a bus, making it the bloodiest attack in the city's history.

Individuals inspired by extremists such as the Islamic State group, but not commanded by them, have carried out many recent knife and vehicle attacks.

According to McCallum, UK authorities have foiled 31 attack attempts by both Islamic and far-right extremists in the last four years.

He claimed that 20 years after the September 11 attacks in the United States, it was difficult to assess whether Britain was safer or less safe.

"The number of plots that we disrupt nowadays are actually higher than the number of plots that were coming at us after 9/11, but on average they are smaller plots of lower sophistication," he said.

(With inputs from agencies)