Andrew Parker, MI5 chief: Al Qaeda plotting ‘mass casualty attacks against the West’

The head of Britain’s MI5 intel agency said al Qaeda terrorists working out of Syria are planning a massive attack on spots in the West and are looking particularly long at transportation systems or “iconic targets” to cause large-scale damage.

“A group of core al Qaeda terrorists in Syria is planning mass casualty attacks against the West,’ Director General Andrew Parker said, Newsmax reported.

He also said that “iconic targets” and transportation systems were believed to be most at risk and that the terrorists wanted to “cause large-scale loss of life,” Newsmax said.

The warning also included this revelation: Mr. Parker disclosed that Britain faced four major terror plots in the last year, The Independent reported. And security in the nation is currently engaged in several operations to counter the threat — something that he says is growing increasingly difficult to do.

“My sharpest concern as director-general of MI5 is the growing gap between the increasingly challenging threat and the decreasing availability of capabilities to address it,” he said, The Independent reported.