Increasing assassination attempts by Iranian regime in Britain, MI5 chief warns

The director general of Britain’s homeland security service, MI5, has reported a “staggering” rise in assassination attempts by the Iranian and Russian regimes on British soil.

On Tuesday, October 8, Director General Ken McCallum, presenting his annual report, warned of threats from Tehran and Moscow, as well as growing concerns about the activities of the Islamic State group (ISIS) and Al-Qaeda.

According to this security official, ‘enemy’ countries hire criminals to do their ‘dirty work’.

Ken McCallum told the London Counter-Terrorism Operations Center that since January 2022, MI5 and British police have responded to 20 Iranian regime-backed plots that posed potentially deadly threats to British citizens and residents.

This security official added that following the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of the regime’s vice squad in September 2022, London witnessed successive plots by the Iranian regime.

Following the death of Mahsa Amini, widespread protests broke out among Iranians inside and outside Iran, leading to a huge wave of opposition to the Iranian regime.

In April, Reporters Without Borders described increasing threats against Iranian journalists in Britain as “unprecedented” and called on the British government to take action to protect their lives.

On Monday, August 6, 2023, the British Prime Minister’s office stated that the Iranian regime poses “a serious threat” to Britain and its allies, and “an immediate danger” to Iranian dissidents and opposition figures living in Britain.

In another part of his speech, McCallum emphasized that Iran, like Russia, uses everyone from drug traffickers to petty criminals in its operations.

McCallum warned that if Israel retaliates against a missile attack from Iran, Iran could expand its targets to Britain.

He said escalating conflicts in the Middle East increased the risk of Iran’s aggressive activities spreading to Britain.

McCallum also mentioned that Israel’s conflicts with Iranian-backed militias, including Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen, could potentially lead to terrorist attacks in Britain.

Earlier, the British Home Secretary had described Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as the biggest threat to British security, saying the IRGC had increased its threats on British soil and deployed criminal gangs to suppress the opposition.