Britain’s top spook has warned Islamic State militants are using turmoil sown by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bombing in Syria to plot attacks against the United Kingdom and her allies.

Secret Intelligence Service head Alex Younger has made a rare public speech, inviting journalists inside MI6 Headquarters in London for the first time since he won the job in 2014.

He said Russia and Bashar al-Assad were hindering the defeat of militants by attempting to make a “desert” out of Syria.

“As I speak, the highly organised external attack planning structures within Daesh (IS), even as they face military threat, are plotting ways to project violence against the UK and our allies without ever having to leave Syria,” he said.

Mr 
Younger cast Mr Putin’s intervention on the side of President Assad as a crude tactical ploy that aligned Russia with the minority Alawites whose members are viewed with suspicion among the majority Sunnis.

“In defining as a terrorist anyone who opposes a brutal government, they alienate precisely that group that has to be on side if the extremists are to be defeated,” he said.

“Russia and the Syrian regime seek to make a desert and call it peace.

The human tragedy is heartbreaking.”
Alex Younger

Mr Younger said civil war in Syria was a major threat to the United Kingdom, which he said was facing an unprecedented threat from terrorism including 12 foiled plots since June 2013.

He has been repeatedly asked about the future of intelligence cooperation with the United States and EU powers since the Brexit vote and Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election.

“My answer is that I will aim for, and expect, continuity,” Mr Younger said.

“The need for the deepest cooperation can only grow. And I am determined that MI6 remains a ready and highly effective partner.”

Mr Younger, one of the West’s most powerful spies, said Britain faced “hybrid warfare” from unidentified hostile states through cyber-attacks, propaganda and the subversion of the democratic process.

By inviting selected journalists to MI6’s headquarters for the first public speech by a serving chief, or “C”, Mr Younger sought to cast one of the most secretive organisations on the planet as a diverse and dynamic spy service which was hiring the best.

Who are The UK's spies? Hear from the new head of MI6 Alex Younger https://t.co/wtPZi9AF2x pic.twitter.com/GPXKbHbMgU

— BBC Newsbeat (@BBCNewsbeat) December 8, 2016

MI6, depicted by novelists as the employer of some of the most memorable fictional spies from John le Carre’s George Smiley to Ian Fleming’s James Bond, operates overseas and is tasked with defending Britain and its interests.

James Bond would have to ditch his womanising, hard-drinking ways in a modern MI6. Photo: file

“I am conflicted about Bond. He has created a powerful brand for MI6 – as C, the real life version of M – there are few people who will not come to lunch if I invite them,” Mr Younger said.

But he had some bad news for those aspiring to be the maverick, hard-drinking, womanising James Bond of Fleming’s novels: “Were Mr Bond to apply to join MI6 now, he would have to change his ways.”

– Guy Faulconbridge