Al-Qaeda may strike in coalition countries over Libya

The UK’s Secret Service MI5 has growing concerns that Libyan expats are plotting terrorist attacks in Britain, according to reports. It would be seen as revenge for bombing raids by European countries on Colonel Gaddafi’s regime.

EU countries have taken a leading role in enforcing the UN resolution, but their efforts in Libya now threaten to bring the conflict right to their own backdoors.

Analysts claim Colonel Gaddafi now has little other weapons left in his armory than overseas terror.

He has faced repeated accusations that he ordered the Lockerbie bombing that killed 270, mostly Westerners. Experts say some countries are particularly in the firing line.

“The three leading countries of the offensive are France, the UK and the United States, of course. The only option he has, really, is to use terror,” says Claude Moniquet of the European Strategic Intelligence and Security Centre in Brussels. “It’s a clear, actual and present danger – today, in the coming days, maybe in the coming weeks.”

But EU backing for anti-Gaddafi rebels could backfire further. Rebel leaders include the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, an Al-Qaeda splinter group. And the casualties mounting every day from allied bombing make fertile recruiting ground for anti-Western forces.

“There are agents of Al-Qaeda working now in Libya in that atmosphere of chaos. I’m sure,” says Professor of Middle East studies at Ghent University Urbain Vermeulen.

EU Muslims have been protesting against NATO’s bombing of Libya. Organizers say people should prepare for the worst.

“There’s certainly a very strong likelihood, I think probably even inevitability, that Muslims will attack in retaliation,” the organizer of the London protests, Anjem Choudary, told RT.

Anger at the invasion of Iraq led to a surge in terror attacks in the EU. Almost 200 people died in the Madrid train bombings in 2004. While suicide bombers killed 52 people in London in 2005. Officials now dread similar results in the wake of this campaign.

Western intelligence has reported increased activity among suspected EU terror cells, indicating the threat of attack is high. One officer told RT an EU terrorist strike is now just a question of time.

@RT