Paris attacks: Britain braces as hunt on for wolves among refugees

From the Sunday Times via The Australian

Two of the gunmen who carried out the devastating attacks in Paris were said to have been among tens of thousands of Syrian refugees who have entered Europe through Greece. 

A passport found by the body of one of the suicide bombers at the Stade de France on Saturday was registered on the island of Leros, on October 3, the Greek government said. A second terrorist had passed through Leros two months earlier, according to reports in the Greek media, quoting police sources.

Intelligence chiefs fear more terrorists could have infiltrated western Europe via the same route.

Britain’s Cobra emergency committee was due to discuss the potential threat overnight amid warnings from Islamic State it could strike on British streets next.

At a Cobra meeting yesterday, security chiefs told Mr Cameron the lessons from Paris, where French police stormed the theatre, were that they should hit back hard and fast. A Whitehall security source said: “In these situations you don’t save lives by negotiating. You save lives by moving in fast and killing the terrorists.”

Mr Cameron said the attack “suggests a new degree of planning and co-ordination and a greater ambition for mass casualty attacks … However much we prepare, we in the UK face the same threat.”

An SAS counterterrorism unit, about 50 strong, has been moved from its base in Hereford to RAF Northolt in west London with unmarked helicopters.

Officials emphasised, however, that there was no intelligence on an imminent attack. The national threat level remained “severe”, meaning that an attack is “highly likely”, but security chiefs did not raise it to “critical”. 

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