The UK could deploy lethal drone strikes in Afghanistan if the Taliban allows terrorists to operate in the country again, the defence secretary has suggested.
Ben Wallace said on Thursday that he would be prepared to do “whatever I have to do” to protect the UK as he visited RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire, where a new fleet of remotely-piloted Protector aircraft will be based.
The government is investing £94m to upgrade the RAF station so it can house the drones, which are set to enter into service in 2024.
When asked if the UK government would consider launching drone strikes in Afghanistan, Mr Wallace said: “I’ll do whatever I have to do to protect citizens’ lives and our interests and our allies, when we’re called upon to do so, wherever that may be.”
His comments follow concerns about the possibility of Afghanistan becoming a safe haven for terrorist groups under the Taliban’s leadership after western troops withdrew from the country last month.
On Friday, the head of MI5 warned there was “no doubt” that the chaotic events in the country had “heartened and emboldened” extremists, potentially raising the terrorist threat to the UK.
“There is no doubt that events in Afghanistan will have heartened and emboldened some of those extremists and so being vigilant to precisely those kinds of risks [is what] my organisation is focused on along with a range of other threats,” Ken McCallum told BBC Radio 4’s Today show.
Mr McCallum said that it would take time for “al Qaida-style” attacks to build but noted that there could be an immediate “psychological boost” for terrorists working independently in the UK or in other countries.
“We need to be vigilant both for the increase in inspired terrorism which has become a real trend for us to deal with over the last five to 10 years, alongside the potential regrowth of al Qaida-style directed plots,” he added.
The MI5 director-general also said that it was hard to give a “simplistic answer” for whether the UK was safer now than it was 20 years ago, when the 9/11 terror attacks took place in the US, due to the changing nature of global terrorism.
“The number of plots that we disrupt nowadays are actually higher than the number of plots that were coming at us after 9/11, but on average they are smaller plots of lower sophistication,” Mr McCallum said.
Additional reporting by PA
