US underestimating Isis threat, former top intelligence official warns

'This isn’t just lone wolves inspired by propaganda. This is coordinated.'

Attackers who carry out Western attacks are coordinated by Isis and are not acting merely as volunteers, according to Derek Harvey (Getty Images)

The US is underestimating the threat posed by Isis, according to former top intelligence official.

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Derek Harvey said the country’s intelligence services are failing to protect their citizens from future attacks because they are not coming to the right conclusions about the terror group.

The former senior intelligence adviser and agent on Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, told the newspaper that any perception that Isis focused solely on their wars in Iraq and Syria, while volunteers dedicated to the group undertook attacks in Western countries, was not correct.

Mr Harvey said that the perpetrators of attacks on the West were not “lone wolves” but part of a command structure within the terrorist organisation, as part of which they received coordinated support from Isis and funding.

He told the Daily Telegraph: “Their intent is to strike with organised decentralised operations focused on the West. This isn’t just lone wolves inspired by propaganda. This is coordinated.”

Among a number of criticisms of the US intelligence services, Mr Harvey said attention was not being paid to jihadist literature and ideology and that there was a “lack of creativity” with regards to understanding Jihadism.

Mr Harvey said that Isis’ intention was less about killing on a mass scale in a single attack, but to organise several smaller attacks to coincide in Western cities.

The US state department today issued a warning that all Americans should be alert to possible travel risks following the increased threats from militant groups around the world.

The alert will be in force until 24 February and said intelligence suggested Isis, al-Qaeda and Boko Haram and militants with other groups would continue to plan attacks in multiple regions.

The department said the likelihood of such attacks would continue as members of Isis returned from Syria and Iraq, and other individuals not affiliated with terror groups engaged in violence of their own.

Last week, Isis released a new propaganda video praising the Paris terror attcks and threatening to launch an attack on US capital Washington and other countries involved in air strikes against the group in Syria.