General Nicholas Carter’s chilling words come just weeks after Mr Trump boasted of the successful US-led mission to take the jihadist group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. In his annual address to the Westminster-based Royal United Services Institute General Carter said the terror group would continue to spread its influence across the globe. He warned: “Daesh, and the extremist ideas it represents, has absolutely not been defeated – indeed the threat from terrorism has proliferated – as was sadly demonstrated once again in last Friday’s attack at London Bridge. 

“And the conditions in parts of the world are not conducive to reducing the growth of extremism.” 

On global unrest, he concluded “worryingly, I think, the trends are not positive” and pointed to the increase of armed conflicts which do not have international actors from 30 to 70 over the past few years. 

He pointed to the data from the US-based think tank the Carter Centre’s data which shows more than 1,000 armed groups are fighting in the Syrian war, now in its ninth year. 

The diverse groups include the Syrian Armed Forces, the Free Syrian Army and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). 

Mercenaries and soldiers linked to Russia, Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the US-led coalition, Israel and the Netherlands are also on the ground. 

Troops tied to Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shia group designated a terrorist organisation by Israel, the UK, EU, US and much of the West have also played a role fighting on the side of President Assad’s regime. 

General Carter said given the fact that each group is fighting with a different agenda in mind, the war has created a “tinder box that could easily ignite a wider conflagration”. 

He said: “All this requires a strategic response that integrates all of the levers of national power – a ‘fusion’ approach that brings coherence and consistency to our UK strategy.” 

He said whichever party wins next week’s general election should prioritise a review of the UK’s national defence strategy. 

He added: “Both major parties in this campaign have said that they intend to have a strategic defence and security review, and in theory 2020 would be the next moment for an SDSR (strategic defence and security reviews) in the current quinquennial cycle. 

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“Either way it would help us in defence to have a review that could help us answer some of these significant strategic questions.” 

He said a “proper assessment of the threat” facing Western nations needed to be undertaken. 

Mr Trump made much of the killing of al-Baghdadi in a US military raid on October 26. 

Troops swooped on the terror leader and his family in a compound outside the village of Barisha in north-west Syria. 

In March the Republican leader said Islamic State had been “100 percent” defeated. 

And former White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said “the territorial caliphate has been eliminated in Syria”. 

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