MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

UK faces threat of “unprecedented” proportions, says British chief spy

MI6's Alex Younger warns of unprecedented threats

MI6 Director Alex Younger said on Thursday that the unprecedented terrorist threat his country is going through would not abate until the end of the civil war in Syria. Ha added that 12 plots to commit an attack have been dismantled since June 2013 and warned that “the efficiently murderous” Islamic state continues to plan attacks from Syria, despite recent military setbacks.

 The UK faces an “unprecedented” terrorist threat that will not abate until the end of the civil war in Syria, said Alex Younger, director of the British spy agency MI6, on Thursday. In an unusual media meeting, Younger revealed that the British authorities have dismantled 12 plots to commit an attack since June 2013, warning that “the efficiently murderous” Islamic state continues to plan attacks from Syria, despite recent military setbacks.

“The hell of the Syrians continues to get worse. I can not say with certainty what will happen next year,” said the head of international espionage in his first public statements since taking office in 2014. “But what I do know is that we will not be safe from the threats emanating from that place until the civil war ends,” he added. “We have to take the fight to enemy territory, infiltrate terrorist organizations,” he went on.

Younger criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin for his support of Bashar al-Assad's Syrian regime and warned that the “hybrid war” that mixes cyber attacks and propaganda is an “increasingly dangerous” phenomenon that threatens Western democracies.