Terror threat in Northern Ireland raised to ‘severe’ ahead of expected President Biden visit
- MI5 previously graded the threat level as substantial, meaning a terror attack is ‘likely’, before raising it to severe, indicating an attack is ‘highly likely’
- The president, a Catholic with Irish roots, is due to visit for the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday peace accord that stemmed three decades of conflict
The British government has raised its terrorism threat level assessment in Northern Ireland to “severe” just two weeks before an expected visit to Belfast by President Joe Biden.
The president said last month he would visit Northern Ireland for the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday peace accord that stemmed three decades of bloody sectarian conflict in the province. Dates have not yet been announced.
MI5, Britain’s domestic security service, raised the terror threat due to the “very latest intelligence and analysis of factors”, according to Britain’s Northern Ireland secretary, Chris Heaton-Harris.
“In recent months, we have seen an increase in levels of activity relating to Northern Ireland Related Terrorism, which has targeted police officers serving their communities and also put at risk the lives of children and other members of the public,” Heaton-Harris said in a statement.
The province has made major progress toward peace since the Troubles, a low-level civil war between largely Catholic Irish nationalists and largely Protest unionists that lasted from about 1968 to 1998.
But hostilities have simmered since, with Britain’s decision to exit the European Union three years ago worsening tensions. “Brexit” created new trade barriers between Northern Ireland, a plurality Catholic part of UK, and the rest of Britain.