
 UK Home SecretaryTheresa May said  Friday that raising the threat level from “substantial” to “severe”  means that a terror attack on the UK is “highly likely” in view of the  conflicts in Iraq and Syria - although there was no intelligence to  suggest an attack was “imminent."  Prime Minister David Cameron said at least 500 people had traveled  from the UK "to fight in Syria and potentially Iraq". He said Islamic  State (IS) extremists - who are attempting to establish a "caliphate",  or Islamic state, in the region - represented a "greater and deeper  threat to our security than we have known before." He promised new laws  to make it easier to take passports away from people traveling abroad to  join the conflict.