IS files show terror plots against Europe: UK Gen

A top UK general, who was part of the US-led coalition fighting Islamic State terrorists in the Middle East, on Monday said a large amount of intelligence had been obtained on the dreaded terror group’s plans to target Europe.

Major-General Rupert Jones, the deputy commander of US-led operations against the militants, said the files had been retrieved in July by Western-backed Kurdish and Arab militias from the former Islamic State (ISIS) stronghold of Manbij, in the Aleppo governorate of northern Syria.

Jones told some British newspapers that an even bigger haul of data about ISIS was expected to be uncovered in the terrorists’ stronghold of Mosul, in northern Iraq, which he predicted would fall by the early half of next year.

“Manbij was hugely important for external operations. A huge amount of intelligence gathered in Manbij related to threats in Europe and elsewhere,” he said. While specific plots against Britain had not yet emerged, he said he was in no doubt that ISIS remained a threat.