“If they cannot get the US, the UK remains a large target"
The UK is in danger of a terror attack on the same scale as 9/11, security experts have said, in the wake of the Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan.
"There is the possibility of a 9-11 style spectacular, on government buildings, sports grounds, major targets," Colonel Richard Kemp, former commander of British forces in Afghanistan told
The Mirror, less than a week after the Taliban claimed Kabul.
“If they cannot get the US, the UK remains a large target," he added.
The warning was echoed by military chiefs, ex-MI5 agents, intelligence experts and security officials, who fear the UK will also face atrocities like the 2013 murder of soldier
Lee Rigby.
“The Taliban is not a problem for the Afghan people alone. Plots against democracies will be hatched here once again," said the leader of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, Ahmad Masood.
Former Director-General of the British Security Service Lord Jonathan Evans told
The Mirror: “If they (the Taliban) get the opportunity to put down infrastructure to train and to operate then that will pose a threat to the West.
“There’s also the psychological effect of the inspiration that some people will draw from the failure of Western power in Afghanistan.
“In practical terms and in terms of ungoverned space, but also in psychological terms, it probably means an increase in threat over the coming months and years.”
During the brutal years of Taliban rule in the 1990s and early 2000s, terrorist organisations were prevalent throughout Afghanistan, with Al Qaeda's Osama Bin Laden planning the horrific 9/11 attacks from there.
In the days since the Taliban have seized control of Afghanistan, there have already been reports of atrocities being carried out, including a woman reportedly being set on fire for
"bad cooking".
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