After the latest anti-Semitic attack, Britain raises the terrorist threat level again / Prime Minister Keir Starmer, booed
The British government announced on Thursday the raising of the terrorist threat level to “severe”, the fourth on a scale of five, after the anti-Semitic attack committed a day ago in London and left two injured, Reuters, AFP and Agerpres report.
“Today, the national threat level has been raised again to 'severe', which means that a terrorist attack is considered extremely likely,” British Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said.
The Center for Terrorism Analysis, which operates within MI5 (Britain's internal intelligence services) but makes independent assessments, had previously set the terror threat level at “substantial”, meaning a terrorist attack was “likely”.
On Wednesday, two Jewish men were injured in a knife attack in the Golders Green district of north London, in what police are treating as a “terrorist act”.
The attack followed a series of anti-Semitic incidents in recent weeks in the same area of the capital that is home to a large Jewish community.
The two injured men, aged 76 and 34, were hospitalized and in stable condition Wednesday evening.
Police confirmed that the suspect, a 45-year-old British national born in Somalia who came to the UK legally in the 1990s, was reported in 2020 to Prevent, the UK government's counter-extremism programme, but the case was closed the same year.
Around 30 people have been arrested in investigations into arsons and attempted arsons in London, which have targeted places associated with the Jewish community in recent weeks.
A little-known group, Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiyya (Hayi), believed to be pro-Iranian, claimed responsibility for several of these attacks, as well as others in Europe.
“Keir Starmer is a coward”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was booed Thursday during a visit to London's Golders Green district, where Wednesday's attack took place.
Dozens of people gathered outside the offices of the local Jewish community ambulance service, and some of them shouted “Starmer is a coward” and “Keir Starmer is harming the Jews”, booing as the official motorcade of the British chief executive left, reports Agerpres.
Earlier on Thursday, Starmer called for a “swift and visible” police and judicial response to the recent spate of attacks on the Jewish community, accusing the London government of not doing enough to protect it and combat anti-Semitism.
