Iraq crisis: UK PM warns of possible IS attack

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Islamic State militants could grow strong enough to target people on the streets of Britain unless action is taken, David Cameron has warned.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The PM, writing in the Sunday telegraph, said a “humanitarian response” to IS was not enough and a “firm security response” was needed.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It comes as Church leaders expressed concern that the UK had no “coherent” approach to tackling Islamic extremism.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">IS has seized large parts of northern Iraq and Syria over the summer.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Kurdish forces, supported by US air strikes, are currently battling to retake Mosul dam from IS fighters in northern Iraq.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">There are also continuing reports of massacres of non-Muslims by the extreme Sunni group, which is seeking to build a new Islamic state spanning Iraq and Syria.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Cameron said: “True security will only be achieved if we use all our resources – aid, diplomacy, our military prowess – to help bring about a more stable world.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“If we do not act to stem the onslaught of this exceptionally dangerous terrorist movement, it will only grow stronger until it can target us on the streets of Britain.”</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He warned that if IS was able to “carve out its so-called caliphate”, the UK would be “facing a terrorist state on the shores of the Mediterranean and bordering a NATO member”.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The UK has made aid drops to people stranded in northern Iraq but the prime minister warned a “broader political, diplomatic and security response” was needed, in addition to humanitarian action.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“We need a firm security response, whether that is military action to go after the terrorists, international co-operation on intelligence and counter-terrorism or uncompromising action against terrorists at home,” he wrote.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The prime minister suggested that anyone walking around in the UK with an Islamic state flag should be arrested.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Cameron also made clear that he did not see this as a “war on terror” but as “a battle between Islam on the one hand and extremists who want to abuse Islam on the other”.</span></div> </div>

Iraq crisis: UK PM warns of possible IS attack

Islamic State militants could grow strong enough to target people on the streets of Britain unless action is taken, David Cameron has warn...

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