Article content

ISIL militants hope to build a maritime arm to carry out attacks on shipping in the Mediterranean, a senior NATO naval officer has warned.

The march of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant along the Libyan coast has cast an “uncomfortable shadow” across sea trade, Vice-Adml Clive Johnstone told The Daily Telegraph.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or ISIL wants to build maritime arm, aiming to bring war to the Mediterranean, NATO chief says Back to video

The spread of sophisticated Russian and Chinese weapons to armed groups in the region also means there is the “horrible opportunity” for the extremists to hit a cruise liner or container ship, the commander of NATO’s maritime command warned.

Libya’s collapse into chaos and ISIL’s seizure of the coastal city of Sirte has prompted alarm in Europe, with countries including Britain considering sending thousands of troops to train local forces.

Vice-Adml Johnstone, a Royal Navy officer, said ISIL had ambitions to mount seaborne operations. He said: “We know they have had ambitions to go offshore, we know they would like to have a maritime arm, just as al-Qaeda had a maritime arm.” The potential of terror at sea was illustrated by the suicide attack, claimed by al-Qaeda, on the warship USS Cole in Aden in 2000.