The Government of Britain, which had announced its resolve to combat terrorism in the aftermath of the terror attacks in Paris, has now ordered its top secret spies to ‘spot and kill’ top ISIS leaders.
The British government, which does not rule out the possibility of a Paris-like terror attack in London or elsewhere, has ordered its secret service agencies to gather more ‘actionable lead’ against top ISIS leaders based in Iraq and Syria.
Indicating a sudden change in strategy, hundreds of British secret service agents have now been instructed to straight away ‘spot and kill’ those spreading the ISIS propaganda and distracting youths to join jihad.
The British authorities have also reportedly prepared a list of most wanted ISIS leaders who are to be eliminated in a time-bound manner. Britain’s kill list includes names of Sheikh Abu Md al Adnani, who is widely believed to be behind the Paris terror attack, followed by Abu Bakr al Baghdadi (ISIS chief), Abu Ali al Anbari, who looks after ISIS operations in Syria among others.
The UK’s elite military unit Special Air Service (SAS) will be sent to Syria as part of the kill mission to eliminate the Islamic State commanders there,
Other moves against ISIS will include deploying of Britain’s most sophisticated nuclear submarine into the eastern Mediterranean, armed and ready to launch a Tomahawk cruise missile strike on the Islamic State’s Raqqa power base, reports claim.
Around 40 members of the SAS are already supporting US Special Forces in Syria but that number is to be doubled after defence chiefs ordered the head of Britain’s special forces to focus all efforts against ISIS jihadis in Iraq and Syria.
Though the force will take part in a range of missions, its main task will be to target key British extremists.
Moreover, Britain will hire 1,900 more spies to combat ISIS. The new hires will boost the total number of British intelligence staff by 15% to nearly 15,000, the biggest expansion since the 2005 terror attacks on London.
“In the wake of the increasing number of Islamist terror plots against Britain and the attacks in Belgium, France, Tunisia and elsewhere, the Prime Minister has decided to boost resources,” the British government also said in a statement recently.
The new security staff will be working across Britain’s three intelligence agencies – MI5, MI6 and the Government Communications Headquarters. MI5 is the domestic intelligence service, while MI6, formally known as the Secret Intelligence Service, operates abroad. GCHQ is the UK eavesdropping agency.
Britain spends about £2 billion ($3 billion) a year on the three services.
On top of extra resources for the intelligence services, the UK is also planning to more than double the amount it spends checking security at foreign airports.
The extra £9 million ($13.5 million) would provide additional aviation security experts to assess security at airports around the world, and the capacity to respond faster in the event of incidents such as the Russian Metrojet crash in Egypt two weeks ago.
The government said it was rethinking its approach to aviation security following that crash, which killed 224 people. The authorities now believe the plane was most likely brought down by a bomb.
Cameron said the UK will work with countries to put in place the “tightest security measures possible,” prioritizing airports used by high numbers of Brits.
The British PM has already ordered commanders to use precision strikes to target the head of the terrorist group’s “international attacks” unit, which masterminded the Paris massacre and is now targeting Britain.
