PM Warns Iraq Terrorists Will 'Hit UK At Home'

David Cameron warns that if Britain does not intervene in the Middle East crisis then terrorists will "hit the UK at home".

The Prime Minister has cautioned that doing nothing in Iraq and Syria would leave Islamist militants free to launch attacks on Britain.

David Cameron told MPs that leaving Iraq to look after its own affairs was not an option and an "extreme Islamist regime" must not be allowed to be created in the middle of the country.

He said those who said the bloody insurgency in the country was "nothing to do with us" were wrong and that left unchecked, ISIS would turn its fire on the UK.

At Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons, Mr Cameron said: "I disagree with those people who think this is nothing to do with us and if they want to have have some sort of extreme Islamist regime in the middle of Iraq, that won't affect us. It will.


Shiite tribesmen are ready to help defend Baghdad

"The people in that regime - as well as trying to take territory - are also planning to attack us here at home in the United Kingdom.

"So the right answer is to be long-term, hard-headed, patient and intelligent with the interventions that we make.

"The most important intervention of all is to make sure that these governments are fully representative of the people who live in their countries, they close down the ungoverned space, and that they remove the support for the extremists."

Mr Cameron said action was being taken to prevent young men from the UK travelling to fight with the militants in Syria and Iraq and from those radicalised in the Middle East returning to Britain.


Peshmerga begin a fight back against ISIS insurgents in Jalula

He estimated that around 400 Britons were fighting for ISIS in Syria. However, he was unclear on the number involved in the Iraq insurgency.

The Prime Minister's word echoed those of Tony Blair, who in an interview with Sky News at the weekend called for intervention in Iraq and Syria to ensure terrorists were not able to strike at the UK.

Mr Blair told Sky's Dermot Murnaghan that Britain could not afford not to get involved because "ultimately, extremist groups also intend to target us"

Mr Cameron will chair a meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) with senior security advisers this afternoon to discuss the crisis in Iraq and how to protect Britain from battle-hardened insurgents returning from Iraq and Syria.


Nouri al Maliki sacked four security officers after the fall of Mosul

While ruling out military intervention in support of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, he has promised to do "absolutely everything we can" to protect Britain from terrorism.

Former security minister Baroness Neville-Jones said Britain had more young men heading to Syria and Iraq to fight than any other country in Europe.

She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "A sufficient number will be radicalised and will be radicalised in ways where this notion that it's the West's fault will get embedded in their thinking and they will come back with the intention of doing damage."

It comes as insurgents launched a mortar and machine-gun assault on Iraq's biggest oil refinery in Baiji, north of Baghdad.

Smoke was seen billowing from the complex, where production had already ceased following nearby clashes.

Kurdish fighters in the north of the country have begun a counter-offensive against the Islamists, but as ISIS continue their move towards Baghdad, Mr al Maliki has sacked four top security officers for failing to prevent Mosul, Iraq's second biggest city, from falling into militant hands.