Worried owners of luxury yachts in Mediterranean are hiring security to protect from IS
FEARFUL British owners of luxury yachts in the Mediterranean are hiring ex-Special Forces teams to protect their boats against threat from Islamic State (IS) militants.
The surge in demand was sparked by fears that the terror group, who are already using North Africa close by as a base, could launch attacks from Libya on the multi-million pound boats.
To help calm concerns, private security firms that use ex-Special Forces troops from the SBS - the Royal Navy's elite attack teams - are now offering on-board protection with squads of armed men to defend boats and their owners.
They could well become easy targets for terrorist groups operating out of North Africa
Rear Admiral Chris Parry, a former Royal Navy officer and head of a Ministry of Defence policy group, warned that the wealthy could be targeted.
He described how terrorists could "quite easily" disguise themselves among the "small boats containing would-be migrants" crossing the Mediterranean.
He said: "They could well become easy targets for terrorist groups operating out of North Africa who could quite easily disguise themselves among the armada of small boats containing would-be migrants crossing the Med."
Thousands of Britons take sailing holidays around the Mediterranean every summer, and others keep their yachts in the Balearic islands just two hundred miles from the North African coast.
Over the past month, fighting has been raging on in the Libyan coastal city of Sirte - where IS-associated militants are believed to have killed several Islamist-backed militia fighters.
Jihadists affiliated to IS took control of government buildings and a state radio station in Sirte last month.
