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		</div><p>Britain still faces a major threat from Islamic State-inspired terrorism despite the fall of the so-called caliphate in Syria, the head of MI5, Andrew Parker has warned.</p>
<p>Mr Parker said that while the collapse marked a “hugely symbolic” loss, the group has shown that “an ideology does not require territory to survive”.</p>
<p>Describing Islamist terrorism as the “most acute” of the multiple terrorist threats facing the UK, the intelligence chief flagged up the “startling” pull of IS propaganda.</p>
<p><em>“In the UK there remain individuals who are inspired by IS propaganda, despite having shown no interest in travelling to Syria,”</em> he said, in an article for the Evening Standard newspaper.</p>
<p><em>“Of the plots thwarted by police and MI5 and our Western allies in 2018, 80% were conducted by people inspired by the ideology of IS but who had never actually been in contact with it in Syria or Iraq.”</em></p>
<p>Mr Parker, the director general of the security service, added that IS’s remaining members are intent on directing terrorist attacks around the world, including on European soil.</p>
<p>This ambition is shared by al Qaida, whose desire to attack the West <em>“hasn’t diminished while IS has been in the spotlight”</em>, he said.</p>
<p>Mr Parker also disclosed that his agency is working with police, other public bodies and private companies to develop <em>“cutting-edge artificial intelligence and machine-learning technologies”</em> to analyse the intelligence picture.</p>
<p>Citing the vast amounts of data generated by smartphones and the emergence of applications that encrypt communications, he said: <em>“The haystack is bigger and the needle smaller.</em></p>
<p><em>“Increasingly, the vital piece of information that might stop an attack is unlikely to be held by MI5 but buried somewhere else in the mountain of data scattered across the world.”</em></p>
<p>MI5 has joined police in combating the threat from right-wing terrorism, following a rise in the number of investigations in the last three years, while dissident Republican groups <em>“still cling to terrorist methods”</em> to disrupt the Northern Ireland peace process, Mr Parker said.</p>
<p><em>“But of the multiple terrorist threats facing the UK, Islamist terrorism remains the most acute,”</em> he wrote.</p>
<p><em>“The abhorrent events in Sri Lanka are a stark and tragic reminder of terrorists’ determination and ongoing ability to perpetuate misery through launching large-scale attacks.”</em></p>
<p>Police and MI5 are running a record 700-plus live terrorism investigations.</p>
<p>There are around 3,000 active “subjects of interest” (SOI), plus a wider pool of more than 20,000 “closed” SOIs who have at some point featured in probes.</p>
<p>Britain was hit by five attacks in 2017, while 14 Islamist and four extreme right-wing plots have been foiled in just over two years.</p>
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