UK Steps Up Surveillance of Extremists in Wake of ISIS Leader Raid

The British security services have stepped up their surveillance of extremist suspects in the wake of the death of Abu-Bakr Al-Baghdadi, the Islamic State leader, to catch would-be revenge attacks.

High-risk radical Islamist suspects are considered to be at even higher risk of attempting to launch attacks in the wake of Western strikes against Islamic State targets, out of a desire to make reprisals. Aware of this potentially major security threat, British security services afford a greater degree of surveillance to catch any plots before they can be launched, according to unnamed sources cited by Sky News.

The report claims it is a matter of routine to step up surveillance in the wake of major security events as well as terror attacks, as they can trigger potential actors.

The security services have been met with generally limited criticism in the wake of the several terror attacks that struck British cities in recent years. Inquests into the terror killings have generally exonerated the police and the Security Service (MI5) for not having prevented the killers from striking.

While parliamentary members of the Intelligence and Security Committee have brought up the fact the Manchester bomber had previously been investigated by MI5 but was not seen as a high priority suspect before he killed 22, the intelligence services revealed last week they had foiled 24 active terror plots in two years, potentially saving many lives. Two-thirds of the plots foiled had radical Islamic motivations.

UK security agency MI5 lists the current domestic threat level of a terrorist attack as ‘severe’, meaning that an attack remains ‘highly likely’.

President Donald Trump revealed that Islamic State figurehead Abu-Bakr Al-Baghdadi had died on Sunday. The President said of the demise of the radical Islamist: “He died like a dog, he died like a coward… The world is now a much safer place.”

Al-Baghdadi detonated his suicide vest while hiding from U.S. forces, the President said, killing himself and his family but injuring no troops or civilians.