Calls Taliban Victory Inspiring, MI5 Chief: British Intelligence Thwarts 31 Terrorist Attack Attempts In The Last Four Years

MI5 Director Ken McCallum (Source: mi5.gov.uk)

JAKARTA - The success of the Taliban in taking power in Afghanistan is seen as a boost to extremists elsewhere by Britain's spy chief.

The Taliban unexpectedly entered Kabul and took control of Afghanistan on August 15, after a series of rapid attacks on various parts of Afghanistan in less than two weeks.

The Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan would provide a morale boost to extremists planning attacks elsewhere. Returning to the group's base of operations, as before the September 11, 2001 attacks, said Ken McCallum, director of Britain's top spy agency and main domestic security agency (MI5).

Citing Reuters from the BBC on September 10, McCallum said the threat of terrorism to Britain was real and lasting.

"We face a consistent global struggle to defeat extremism and to guard against terrorism," McCallum said in an interview on the eve of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Britain last faced a major attack in 2017, when a bomber attacked a concert in Manchester and knife-wielding men attacked two bridges in London.

In the four years since, police and intelligence services have disrupted 31 late-stage plans to attack Britain, McCallum said. According to him, such militants would be inspired by the success of the Taliban.

"Overnight you can get a psychological boost, a morale boost for extremists who are already here or in other countries, so we need to be vigilant," McCallum said.

"There is no doubt that recent events in Afghanistan will encourage and strengthen some of these extremists."

The Taliban have promised they will not let Afghanistan, where Osama bin Laden planned the 9/11 attacks when they were last in power, again become a haven for insurgents planning to attack the West. However, McCallum said there was a risk that this would happen.

"Besides the immediate inspirational effect, is the risk of terrorists recasting and once again putting us in the path of a sophisticated, well-developed plot of the kind we faced on 9/11 and the years after."