LONDON, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- Islamic terrorists pose the greatest threat to British security since World War II, London's police commissioner said.
"The threat of another terrorist attempt is ever-present," said Commissioner Ian Blair. "Christmas is a period when that might happen."
He added he had "no specific intelligence" to support his warning, London's Independent newspaper reported.
Still, Blair said Islamic terrorism was "a far graver threat in terms of civilians than either the Cold War or the Second World War," he told BBC Radio's "Today" program. "You have to go back to that threat -- it's a much graver threat than that posed by Irish Republican terrorism."
Eliza Manningham-Buller, the director-general of Britain's internal national security agency MI5, said last month the agency was tracking more than 1,600 members of terrorist cells and was monitoring 30 major plots.
