UK faces full-blown Islamist insurgency

The grim possibility that the two London attacks in July were not simply a sporadic terror campaign is being discussed at the highest levels in government.

Fears of a third strike remain high, based on concrete evidence supplied by an intercepted text message and the interrogation of a terror suspect being held outside Britain, The Independent daily reported.

As police and security services work to prevent another attack, attention is focusing on the pool of migrants to this country from the Horn of Africa and central Asia.

Mi5, the British internal intelligence agency, is of the view that more than 10,000 young men from these regions have had at least basic training in light weapons and military explosives.

Quoting a well-connected source, the report said there were more than 1,00,000 people in Britain from "completely militarised" regions, including Somalia and its neighbours in the Horn of Africa, and Afghanistan and territories bordering the country.

"Every one of them knows how to use an AK-47," said the source.

"About 10 per cent can strip and re-assemble such a weapon blindfolded, and probably a similar proportion have some knowledge of how to use military explosives. That adds up to tens of thousands of men", the source was quoted as saying in the report.

Meanwhile, At least three of the four suspects in the July 21 attempted bombings on the London subway and a bus were born in East Africa, where al-Qaeda-linked groups still operate and may be growing in strength, according to a new assessment by counterterrorism experts.