A north-east man fighting Islamic State has said an atrocity by the terror group on UK soil is “guaranteed”.
Alan Duncan, 47, is currently in Iraqi Kurdistan fighting the militants alongside comrades from the Peshmerga.
Last night, he revealed how he dodged suicide bombers and chemical-loaded mortars while urging western “X-Box warriors” to stay at home.
But while conceding a terror attack was inevitable, he added that the IS raids in western capitals was a “sign of weakness” suggesting the group is losing ground.
Speaking about the possibility of a new atrocity in the UK he said: “I guarantee it.
“They have already said they want to hit London and I think you need to believe these people.
“But this isn’t a sign of strength, it’s a sign of weakness. They are doing this because they are losing.
“If you look at the Paris attacks – these happened after they lost Sinjar.
“Now that they are threatened in Mosul they will lash out again.
“But this is because they see the writing is on the wall. People are leaving Daesh.
“When they were winning they had plenty of recruits but now they’re losing ground in both Iraq and Syria nobody wants anything to do with them.”
Mr Duncan, a former British Army soldier, also warned westerners not to consider travelling the war zone and urged people to donate only to registered refugee charities operating in the countries.
He said: “I’ve seen a lot of scammers on the internet who go online saying they are coming over to fight Daesh, appeal for funds, get thousands and we never see them.
“Some people want to come over with no military experience and they’ll say things like ‘I do a lot of paintballing’.
“The Peshmerga doesn’t have time to babysit these X-Box warriors, war isn’t a computer game.
“If you want to help the best you can do is to do your research and donate to a charity on the ground here.”
He also praised RAF pilots carrying out air strikes on IS but called for more equipment to be supplied by the British Government.
He added: “When we’re fighting and we see the plane overhead circling we are buzzing because we know they are going to kill Daesh.”