Security fears over UK fighters in Syria

Fears are growing that British extremists fighting alongside al Qaida in Syria could pose a terrorist threat when they return home.

Four British men have been killed in recent months while fighting with the terror group against government forces.

Three of the men, all thought to be from London, were killed as they attacked fighters loyal to President Bashar Assad, while a fourth died two weeks later when he was shot as he ambushed an enemy position, The Times said.

Another Briton has spoken out about why he has joined an al Qaida group fighting in Syria.
Ifthekar Jaman, 23, from Southsea, Hampshire, told the BBC's Newsnight he was engaged in jihad, or holy war, to help set up a state based on Islamic religious law.

Security experts fear that Britons who have travelled to fight in Syria - estimated by MI5 to number between 200 and 300 - may seek to radicalise others when they return to the UK.

Two men who returned from the war-torn country were arrested in London last month after allegedly being linked to a terrorist plot, The Times said.

Raffaello Pantucci, of the Royal United Services Institute, told the newspaper that deaths of British fighters in Syria could lead to an increased threat of a terror attack in the UK.

He said: "The likelihood grows of someone deciding that they want to punish the West for standing by as the death and destruction in Syria continue, as does the risk that groups on the battlefield might decide to distinguish themselves by using these foreign recruits to launch attacks in the West."

Shiraz Maher, from the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King's College London, said: "Many Britons have made it clear they intend to stay in Syria and seek martyrdom but they are young and angry and that motivation could mutate and one day they could return to attack the West."

The man killed during an ambush of Assad's forces in August was Mohammed el-Araj, 23, from Ladbroke Grove, west London, The Times said.

Calling himself Abu Khalid, he was jailed for 18 months in 2010 after being arrested during a violent protest outside London's Israeli embassy.

He fought alongside the three other men who were killed by shelling two weeks earlier, along with nine others of different nationalities.