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Smith. Attack on Britain remains highly likely
Photo: Reuters

Britain: Al-Qaeda in decline

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith says support for global terror group dropping, but warns smaller numbers of terrorists will be able to access deadlier weapons to mount increasingly lethal attacks

Britain's Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said Tuesday that support for al-Qaeda is declining, but she warned smaller numbers of terrorists will be able to access deadlier weapons to mount increasingly lethal attacks.

 

Smith released Britain's new anti-terrorism strategy, a public document that describes threats to Britain and details government efforts to protect the UK.

 

"Assuming continued international pressure, the al-Qaeda core organization is likely to fragment and may not survive in its current form," the strategy document states. "But it will still have the capability to conduct significant terrorist attacks."

 

Though some Muslims are likely to continue to support extremist Islamist ideology, "fewer will support al-Qaeda operational activities," it states.

 

Since July 2005 attacks on London's transit network in 2005, in which 52 people were killed, two other major attempted attacks against Britain have failed.

 

Two weeks after the transit bombings, a group of men attempted a similar strike against the city's transit

network - but their bombs failed to detonate. In 2007, attempted car bomb attacks against London's theater district and Glasgow airport also failed.

 

Intelligence and security officials say more than a dozen other attempted attacks against the UK have been thwarted since 2001. Several leading terrorists have been convicted in British courts and jailed in recent years.

 

The new British strategy suggests that the capture - or death - of Osama bin Laden or Al-Qaeda's No. 2 leader Ayman al-Zawahiri may disrupt terrorists, but would do little to stop the flow of attempted attacks against the West.

 

Smith also said that no specific terrorist threat to next month's Group of 20 summit has been identified - but she warned that an attack on Britain remains highly likely.

 

World leaders including US President Barack Obama, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and French President Nicolas Sarkozy will meet in London on April 2 to discuss efforts to buck the global economic downturn.

 

"We have a police force experienced in dealing both with public order, and with any terrorist threat, which incidentally we have not identified specifically as relating to the G-20," Smith told reporters in London.

 

"A lot of hard work is taking place both to plan for and address any public order threats that have been identified," She said. Britain's overall terror alert is set at severe - meaning an attack is highly likely. "It could happen without warning," Smith said.

 


פרסום ראשון: 03.24.09, 14:29
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