Islamic State plans ‘slaughter’ at Covent Garden, Buckingham Palace and other UK landmarks

Guards at Buckingham Palace, London.

Islamic State has threatened to outdo the Paris massacre by launching a “doomsday” attack on Britain - an atrocity so horrific that it will “turn children’s hair white”.

The terrorist group has warned that Britain will receive the “lion’s share” of its wrath after MPs voted in favour of airstrikes in Syria.

The new threat comes as the security services face a race against time to identify a possible Isis cell in Britain.

Analysis of a video released by the terrorists last week indicates that Buckingham Palace and the National Gallery in central London could be among its targets.

The Paris shootings and bombings last November that killed 130 people and injured almost 700 others were carried out by a team trained in Syria.

In the latest edition of its Arabic language newspaper, al-Naba (the News), IS warns that the UK could suffer a worse fate. In an article that eulogises Mohammed Emwazi, the British murderer known as “Jihadi John”, who was killed by a US drone strike, Isis states that “his words will never die” and that his message of slaughter did not end “with the blood of the soldiers of the caliphate who sent it to France in their own special way”.

Instead Britain will receive the “lion’s share” of the slaughter “in response to its declaration of war against the Muslims” - a reference to last month’s Commons vote on airstrikes against IS in Syria.

An attack on Britain will be so severe, it claims, “that it will turn children’s hair to white”. The warning refers to a Koranic verse outlining the horrors of Judgment Day, or doomsday.

ISIS released a separate video last week that featured nine of the Paris attackers, including the ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud, preparing in Syria for their French mission.

The 17-minute film, seen in full by The Sunday Times, contains a section that strongly indicates Britain will be next.

Abaaoud, 28, is believed to have travelled to London ahead of the Paris attacks. Images of landmarks in Birmingham were also found on his phone after he was killed in a shootout with French police.

In the video Abaaoud suggests that an IS cell may already be in Britain. “By Allah, we will come to you,” he says. “Rather, we are already in your lands. We will slaughter you inside your homes.”

Abaaoud continues by mocking members of the coalition against IS: “If you sent your ‘Hunter’ [sic] fighter jets to bomb the Muslims [in Syria and Iraq], then know that the Islamic State has sent to you ‘hunters’ who thirst for the blood of the disbelievers.”

About 450 British Muslims who travelled to Syria and Iraq to fight with jihadists have returned home, according to the authorities.

Last week it was reported that MI5 fears Isis is seeking to exploit the migrant crisis by smuggling terrorists into Britain and Europe, most likely with fake Syrian passports. At least two of the Paris attackers had posed as Syrian refugees before entering France.

MI5 and GCHQ are thought to be analysing the video for hidden instructions or clues about possible UK targets or the date of an attack. In one section London street scenes are shown in rapid succession.

By examining the montage frame by frame, The Sunday Times has identified a string of potential targets, including Buckingham Palace, the National Gallery and Covent Garden.

British jihadists had plotted to attack the Queen at an event to commemorate the 70th anniversary of VJ Day last year and have boasted about flying the black flag of IS above Buckingham Palace.

A palace spokeswoman said: “We never comment on security matters.”

The National Gallery in Trafalgar Square is visited by more than 6 million people a year. The fact that IS may have the gallery in its sights is reinforced by a new Europol report that says the terrorist group prefers “soft targets with a potential to cause mass casualties”. The gallery said: “We routinely monitor and review our security procedures.”

Covent Garden, which houses bars and restaurants as well as the Royal Opera House, also featured in last week’s IS video. Managers are understood to be aware of a possible threat and are working with counterterrorist police.

Writing in the New Statesman magazine last week Shiraz Maher, of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King’s College London, said: “This is not the first time that IS has appeared to threaten Britain, but it is the most pointed and menacing warning yet.”

Scotland Yard said: “We want the public to be alert, not alarmed. The current threat level across the UK from international terrorism remains at severe, meaning an attack is highly likely. UK police and security and intelligence services are working tirelessly to confront this terrorist threat and keep the public safe.