LONDON:  Although they still retain safe havens in Pakistan and Afghanistan, jihadists are now heading to the Middle East to seek terrorist training as parts of the Arab world have "once more become a permissive environment for al-Qaeda", a British intelligence chief has warned.

 

In a rare public speech here, MI5's director general Jonathan Evans termed this a "new and worrying development" that "could get worse as events unfold," as the agency braces for an array of threats ahead of next month's summer Olympics, Press Trust of India reported.

Evans warned "the Olympic Games present an attractive target for our enemies and they will be at the center of the world's attention in a month or so," and said efforts have been taken to ensure the sports extravaganza did not become an easy target.

The MI chief said Iran was another source of potential concern, as the west and Israel put pressure on Tehran to abandon any nuclear weapon ambitions it may secretly harbor, according to British media reports.

He said there had been a series of attempted plots against Israeli interests in India and Azerbaijan, as well as a plan by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to attack the Saudi ambassador in the United States.

Instability in the Arab region had created "a permissive environment for al-Qaeda", Evans said, adding there was evidence that Britain's would be jihadis were travelling in search of training and opportunities for terror activity.

Al-Qaeda was shifting away from Pakistan and Afghanistan towards Yemen, Somalia and the Sahel, the MI chief said.

"We appear to be moving from a period of deep and focused threat to one where the threat is less monolithic but wider," he said.

It is believed the agency has monitored more than 100 people who have attempted to link up with extremists in countries such as Yemen, Egypt, Syria and Libya.

Evans said one byproduct of the Arab spring was giving al-Qaeda a chance to re-emerge in the countries where the network first won popular support.

In the long-term, more democracy should "ease some of the pressures that have spawned extremism in the region", but in the short-term, with the Arab world in radical transition, this "more immediate problem has emerged".

The scale of terrorist ambition emerging from Yemen is believed to be at the top of MI5's worry list, and the director general made particular reference to recent plots believed to have been hatched in the country.

"Repeated attempts by al-Qaeda in Yemen to mount attacks on aircraft, as we have seen in the underpants bombs and the bomb found in a printer cartridge at East Midlands airport, could have caused mass civilian casualties," he said.

Some supporters of the al-Shabaab militia in Somalia "were seeking to work with al-Qaeda in Yemen, and there are links across to Mali and down to West Africa, where the UK has political, economic and demographic ties," Evans added.

- Bernama

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