British Prime Minister David Cameron has warned that Islamic State is growing stronger every day and the group could eventually target residents right on the streets of London, unless action is taken soon.
In a strongly worded editorial, the British PM stated in The Sunday Telegraph that a "humanitarian response" to Islamic State is not enough now and insisted the situation demanded a "firm security response" instead.
The Islamic State, previously known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), will eventually would target Europe, Cameron stressed.
"If we do not act to stem the onslaught of this exceptionally dangerous terrorist movement, it will only grow stronger until it can target us on the streets of Britain. We already know that it has the murderous intent," the PM noted in the edit piece.
The message from the British Prime Minister comes at a time when the country has been criticised for its cautious stance in the Iraq crisis.
Britain has been assisting the US in air-dropping food supplies to the refugees trapped in northern Iraq till now. However, Cameron suggested the country is also considering military action, alongside diplomacy, to defeat the terrorist group.
The Islamic State has made more advances in Iraq and Syria in the last few months, and is now fighting in northern Iraq against Kurdish militias. The expansion of the Sunni militant group in Iraq and Syria has seen massacres of religious and ethnic minorities.
Cameron expressed fears that the group might now advance towards Turkey, which lies on the Iraq-Syria border.
"If it succeeded we would be facing a terrorist state on the shores of the Mediterranean and bordering a NATO member," Cameron said.
In the editorial, the British PM also warned that the government will crack down on local ISIS supporters in the UK.
"The position is clear. If people are walking around with ISIL flags or trying to recruit people to their terrorist cause, they will be arrested and their materials will be seized," the PM wrote in the article, referring to the recent incident where a black ISIS flag was hoisted on a London housing estate.
Earlier last week, supporters of Islamic State were seen on Oxford Street distributing pamphlets, which urged everyone to "spread the Khalifah [Caliphate] across the world" and support the group's leader and self-proclaimed Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
