Militant Islamist fighters on a tank take part in a military parade along the streets of northern Raqqa province June 30, 2014.

Fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria are a direct threat to Britain and the country must use all of its “military prowess” to halt their advance, British Prime Minister David Cameron said Sunday.

“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,” Cameron wrote in the Sunday Telegraph.

“I agree that we should avoid sending armies to fight or occupy, but we need to recognise that the brighter future we long for requires a long-term plan,” he added.

The Conservative Party leader warned that the West faces a “generational struggle” before adding that security could only be achieved “if we use all our resources — aid, diplomacy, our military prowess.”

Britain and the Middle East

Cameron also said that Britain needed to work with countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar, Egypt, Turkey “and perhaps even with Iran”.

On Sunday, a high-ranking Anglican bishop slammed Cameron’s Middle East policy in a letter that had the backing of Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby.

“We do not seem to have a coherent or comprehensive approach to Islamic extremism as it is developing across the globe,” the bishop of Leeds, Nicholas Baines, wrote in a letter, sent to the Observer newspaper.

Cameron’s comments come a day after ISIS militants carried out a “massacre” of dozens of villagers.

Two months of violence have brought Iraq to the brink of breakup, and world powers relieved by the exit of long-time premier Nuri al-Maliki were sending aid to the displaced and arms to the Kurds.

British Defence Minister Michael Fallon said on Saturday that Britain would keep up its surveillance flights over northern Iraq to try to stop more minority groups coming under ISIS militants attack.

Militant Islamist fighters on a tank take part in a military parade along the streets of northern Raqqa province June 30, 2014.

 
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