Brits Warned of 'New Wave of Terror'

Britain should brace for a "new wave of terror" as the threat from both dissident Irish Republicans and Islamic radicals rises, the chief of the MI5 security agency warns. Militant Irish groups—one of which has threatened to blow up banks in Britain and Ireland—are showing worrying "signs of co-ordination and co-operation," and acquiring more sophisticated weapons, says Jonathan Evans.

Evans says his officers are uncovering more and more terror plots originating in Somalia, where some 100 British residents of assorted ethnic backgrounds are believed to be training with the al-Shabaab militia, the Guardian reports. The Islamist group "is closely aligned with al-Qaeda, and Somalia shows many of the characteristics that made Afghanistan so dangerous a seedbed for terrorism in the period before the fall of the Taliban," Evans warns. (More MI5 stories.)