Qaida planning mass killings in West: MI5 chief

LONDON: Britain has been put on highest state of security alert after the Charlie Hebdo attack. This follows British Security Service (MI5) head Andrew Parker's warning that the UK could face a Paris-style terrorist strike.

Parker said plots have been discovered and added a "mass casualty attack to cause large scale loss of life" was imminent against transport networks and landmarks. He said there is a real possibility of an attempt to blow up a passenger jet.

Al-Qaida is believed to be behind the plans while those feared to execute them are British terrorists, who have re-entered the UK after receiving training in Syria and Yemen. This has prompted heightened security at British airports, landmarks and newspaper offices.

Parker said three attempts have been foiled in recent months. "We know that a group of core al-Qaida terrorists in Syria is planning mass casualty attacks against the West. Although we and our partners try our utmost, we know we cannot hope to stop everything." Parker told members of Royal United Services Institute around 600 British jihadists were either in Syria or had returned.

"We increasingly face a world in which those who pose a serious threat may be able to operate beyond our reach,'' he said. Parker said his sharpest concern as director general of MI5 was the growing gap between the increasingly challenging threat and the decreasing availability of capabilities to address it".

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