ISIS Presence In Britain Confirmed

by JASmius



Part of the cell that struck Paris last November and Brussels last month.  Have British authorities preempted it in time, and have they captured all of it?:

Five people have been arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences as part of an investigation launched after the recent attacks in Paris and Brussels, West Midlands Police say.

Three men, aged twenty-six, forty and fifty-nine, and a twenty-nine-year-old woman, were held in Birmingham on Thursday night.

A fourth man, twenty-six, was arrested at Gatwick Airport in the early hours of Friday. All five are from Birmingham.

Whitehall officials described the arrests as "significant".

Police say they worked with MI5 and Belgian and French authorities in an operation "to address any associated threat to the UK following the attacks in Europe"....

Assistant Chief Constable Marcus Beale, who leads on counter-terrorism for the force, said the operation was part of an “extensive investigation”, and the arrests were “pre-planned and intelligence-led”.

This is evidently the Paris/Brussels connection:

A key line of inquiry is whether the group is connected to Mohamed Abrini, a prime suspect in both the Brussels terror attacks last month and the November Paris atrocities.

Abrini is known to have visited contacts in Birmingham last year as well as visiting London and Manchester.

The British arrests came less than a week after Abrini himself was finally detained by Belgian police.

Abrini sounds like an organizer and recruiter, so grabbing him might impede the spread of this ISIS cell.  Whether they can still strike in Britain depends on its size there and what roles the five arrested yesterday have in the "unit".  If it still has sufficient operational capability, a large attack is probably imminent.  Hopefully MI5 and local Birmingham police have rolled it up.

Of course, as to all the OTHER jihadist cells in Britain, of which there have to be a buttload, those situations are still up in the air.  As they always will be.

Because ISIS is quite literally.....everywhere.