Chefen for britisk kontraterrorpoliti, Mark Rowley, bruger stærke ord for at beskrive terrortrusselen fra IS. Han siger de har skiftet strategi fra personer der tager initiativer selv, til omfattende, planlagte angreb, der rammer hele samfundet. Paris fredag 13. november er kun en forsmag, skal vi tro kontraterrorchefen.

Han hadde næppe våget bruge et så alarmistisk sprog, om han ikke hadde grund til det.

He said: “In recent months we’ve seen a broadening of that, much more plans to attack Western lifestyle, and obviously the Paris attacks in November.

“Going from that narrow focus on police and military as symbols of the state to something much broader. And you see a terrorist group which has big ambitions for enormous and spectacular attacks, not just the types that we’ve seen foiled to date.”

He added: “You see a terrorist group that whilst on the one hand has been acting as a cult to use propaganda to radicalise people to act in their name … you also see them trying to build bigger attacks.”

Mr Rowley, who is the national policing lead for counter-terrorism, said that IS is trying to get supporters who have received military training in Syria into northern Europe to stage attacks.

Overvågningsopgaverne er massive og politiet i flere land har advart om at de ikke har mulighed for at holde tritt. I mange land satser man derfor på elektronisk overvågning. Men det forudsætter at man ved hvad man ser efter. De professionelle jihadister efterlater ingen elektroniske spor. Man må komme tæt på dem via andre, eller overvågningskameraer med ansigtsgenkjendelse og/eller biometrisk id.

Rowley sier det er en foruroligende trend at tenåringer og jenter slutter seg til jihad. Medierne foregiver at rekrutteringen til IS er aftagende. Det lyder ikke riktig så vel.

Mr Rowley said the “shared effort to look for any possible links of those networks or other networks that have reached the UK is obviously a massively high priority”.

In the last three years the number of arrests of terrorist suspects has risen by 57% compared to the previous three years.

Around half lead to a charge. Last year just over three-quarters (77%) of those arrested were British nationals, 14% were female and 13% were aged 20 and under.

The number of girls and women and the number of teenagers is a new trend, Mr Rowley said.

“That would not have been the picture that one would have seen a few years ago. That is an indication of that radicalisation, the effect of the propaganda and the way the messages of Daesh (IS) are resonating with some individuals,” he added.