Islam and violence

Alarmed by the threat, U.S. officials launched a 2015 operation to kill a key weapons expert with the terrorist group

In the summer of 2014, as his followers were ravaging the cities of northern Iraq, Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi convened a secret meeting with a weapons expert whose unusual skills the terrorist chief was anxious to acquire.

His guest was a small man, barely above 5 feet tall, and he had only recently been freed from a years-long stint in U.S. and Iraqi prisons. But before that, Salih al-Sabawi had been an Iraqi official of some renown: a Russian-trained engineer who had once helped President Saddam Hussein build his extensive arsenal of chemical weapons.

Baghdadi had summoned Sabawi, 52, to offer him a job. If supplied with the right equipment and resources, could he produce the same weapons for the Islamic State? Sabawi’s reply, according to a later intelligence report about the meeting, was yes. He could do that and more.

The family of a student acquitted of smuggling almost £16,000 in her underwear to a suspected member of the Isis “Beatles” hostage-taking gang have accused him of ruining her life as police prepare for his return to the UK within days.

Aine Davis was due to be released yesterday from a maximum security prison in Turkey after serving a 7½-year sentence for being a member of Isis. He will be deported as early as this week.

Labelled the “Fourth Beatle”, he will automatically be arrested and questioned by counterterrorism officers on his arrival.

Data shows that the threat of Islamic terrorism is much greater

Concern about the growing threat from the extreme Right-wing has been gaining ground in Britain. The commentariat has lined up to emphasise how it will define this century.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan wrote recently that the West’s battle against the far-Right is one that we cannot ignore. Khan argues that the threat is an evolving global danger and one which the world needs to wake up to. Meanwhile, Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and head of counter-terrorism policing, Matt Jukes, warned that those involved in far-Right extremism were getting younger.