British
jihadi fighters who want to come home from Syria and Iraq are being
given death threats by senior ISIS members, it has emerged.
A
source with contacts among Syrian rebel groups claimed that he knew of
more than 30 Britons who had become linked to the terrorists but now
wanted to return to the UK.
Former
Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg said that any jihadis who wanted
to quit the terror group 'could be subject to disciplinary measures
which could include threats of death or death'.
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Mehdi Hassan, 19, (pictured) who
attended a private Catholic school in Hampshire, travelled to Syria to
fight for ISIS with four others from Portsmouth in October last year. He
died in the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani
Speaking to the Observer,
Begg explained that many of the Britons who wanted to return had
originally travelled to join rebels fighting the Syrian regime of
President Bashar al-Assad and had only later become linked with ISIS.
But now the terror group refuses to allow their British members to leave.
He added that a number of Britons in Syria were currently 'stuck between a rock and a hard place'.
The
revelation comes after it emerged that a former Portsmouth schoolboy
who died while fighting for ISIS tried to escape Syria but was captured
only minutes away from meeting his mother across the Turkish border.
The
family of Mehdi Hassan, 19, who attended a private Catholic school in
Hampshire, confirmed today that he died in the Syrian Kurdish town of
Kobani after a picture of his body emerged on Twitter.
Hassan, who also used the alias Abu Dujana, had expressed plans to
return to Britain over the last few months but had been scared about the
repercussions and the threat of prosecution on terror charges, his
family said.
Hassan
became one of the youngest people to join the group of British
jihadists in Syria after travelling to the Middle East in October last
year.
But
following phone contact with his mother, who he discovered had
travelled to Turkey to establish his whereabouts, Hassan attempted to
escape from the extremist group he had once been a part of.
His
attempt to flee occurred when he was recuperating in the ISIS stronghold
of Raqqa following treatment for a wound he sustained in battle.
Sensing his opportunity, Hassan attempted to escape without a passport, trying to reach the Turkish border town of Urfa.
He was so close to escaping, he phoned his mum and told her he could even see Urfa.
But he was caught just eight minutes away from the border and was imprisoned by ISIS for four days.
Without a passport, Hassan did not try to escape again, returning to fight for the jihadists before he was killed in Kobani.
Although
it's unclear exactly why Hassan did not have his passport, ISIS is
known to encourage its recruits to burn their passports upon swearing
allegiance to the caliphate.
The act is considered a test of loyalty and a symbol of their fighters' desire to sever all ties to their home nation.
His
family confirmed his death this morning and issued a statement to ITV
which said: 'We can confirm that this is indeed Mehdi Hassan. We request
that the family be left to grieve.
'Mehdi was a loving boy with a good heart wishing to help Syrians.
'In recent months he had expressed the intention to return home but was worried about the repercussions.
'This is a tragedy and a lesson.'
Hassan, 19, attended St John's
College, a Catholic school in Portsmouth, which charges £10,000 a year
for day pupils. He travelled to Syria in October 2013
Hassan
had been planning to study international politics at Surrey University
in September last year but travelled to Syria to fight with four other
young men prior to the start of his course.
He
previously attended St John's College, a Catholic school in Portsmouth,
which charges £10,000 a year for day pupils and more than double for
boarders.
He was active on Twitter, using his alias Abu Dujana, and regularly posted messages from Syria.
His
last post, sent just days before his death, said: 'Between 20-40 us
strikes daily in ayn al arab. Alhamdulillah they are spending $10's of
billions...against themselves.' (sic)
He reportedly used to call his family in Britain 'once every couple of months,' keeping them updated on conditions in Syria.
He
initially told his family that he was going to stay in Syria for just
three weeks before he extended his stay for a further three months. He
phoned his mother and told her to withdraw his place from Surrey
University, declaring he would be staying in Syria.
His
death comes just days after it was confirmed another member of the
jihadist group he travelled to Syria with had also been killed while
fighting.
Mamunur
Roshid, 24, who joined Hassan, Ifthekar Jaman, 23, Primark worker
Muhammad Hamidur Rahman, 25, and Assad Uzzaman, 25, in pretending to go
on holiday to Turkey before crossing into Syria, died earlier this week.
CCTV
showed the gang-of-five breezing through London's Gatwick Airport and
looking like tourists setting off on a fortnight's holiday to Turkey.
In reality, the smiling Britons captured on CCTV were heading to Syria to fight their so-called 'holy war'.
The
fanatics, who called themselves the Britani Brigade Bangladeshi Bad
Boys, were all from Portsmouth, and had been seduced by glamorous tales
of martyrdom to join Islamic State (ISIS) in establishing a Muslim
caliphate in the Middle East.
Hassan, Roshid, Rahman and Jaman have all since died while fighting in Syria.
The
Foreign Office said today it had not yet received any reports about Mr
Hassan's death but was 'aware of reports about the death of a British
national in Syria'.
A spokesman added: 'The UK has advised for some time against all travel to Syria, where all UK consular services are suspended.
'As
we do not have any representation in Syria, it is extremely difficult
to get any confirmation of deaths or injuries and our options for
supporting British nationals there are extremely limited.'
Abdul
Jalil, chairman of the Portsmouth Jami Mosque which Hassan attended,
told the BBC: 'It has been confirmed with the family that he has died.
Right now they are very upset.
'I am saddened and again shocked for the community about this news.'
Hassan was one of five friends from
Portsmouth who pretended to go on holiday to Turkey but instead went to
fight for Islamic State in Syria. The group were caught on CCTV at
London's Gatwick Airport last year (pictured)
In his last tweet, posted on October 17 under his alias 'Abu Dujana', Hassan told of 20-40 daily U.S. airstrikes
Speaking
after Roshid's death on Tuesday, Mr Jalil said: 'We are very worried
about this. The imam will speak about this at the mosque on Friday,
telling people not to go to Syria.
'We
are doing everything we can, we are speaking with the council, the
crime prevention team. We are handing out leaflets about what is
happening there.'
A total of ten young extremists from Portsmouth are believed to have left the south coast city for Syria and ISIS.
Earlier
this week, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe
warned that at least five Britons were joining ISIS every week.
He
said: 'We know that over 500 British nationals travelled to join the
conflict. Many have returned and many will wish to do so in the coming
months and perhaps in future years.
'We
still have an average of five people joining them a week. Five a week
doesn't sound much but when you realise there are 50 weeks in a year,
250 more would be 50 per cent more than we think have gone already.
'Those
numbers are a minimum. Those are the ones that we believe have gone.
There may be many more who set out to travel to another country and
meandered over to Syria and Iraq in a way that is not always possible to
spot when you have failed states and leaky borders.'
Earlier
this month, four people were arrested for terrorism offences after the
former home of Jaman, the ringleader of the Portsmouth group of five of
which Hassan belonged, was raided.
Jaman's
mother and father, Enu Miah, 57, and Hena Choudhury, 48, were arrested
and bailed, and his two brothers Tuhim, 26, and Mustakim, 23, were also
arrested along with sister Tamannah Shaharin, 29.
Hassan attended St John's College, a Catholic school in Portsmouth, which charges £10,000 a year for pupils
The British jihadists who fled for Syria regularly attended the Jami Mosque in Portsmouth (pictured)
THE OTHER JIHADISTS WHO LEFT PORTSMOUTH TO FIGHT FOR ISIS IN SYRIA
Abu Abdullah Al Brittani
The 32-year-old, right, is one of ten Britons from Portsmouth to travel Syria to fight for ISIS.
The
British jihadist who says he is fighting for ISIS has attempted to lure
a child away from his parents with chilling online travel advice on how
to reach the Middle East.
A
man calling himself Abu Abdullah Al Brittani gave detailed information
on how Iraq-bound Westerners can exchange currencies to an Ask.Fm user
who described himself as 'underage', said he had never travelled alone
before, and expressed concern about his mother and father finding out.
The
post outlines ISIS' openness to luring Western fighters of all ages to
their cause - including an estimated 500 Britons, many of whom end up
being used as little more than 'cannon fodder' to protect better trained
local jihadists.
Abu
Abdullah was behind an Ask.Fm travel guide for would-be jihadists that
formed part of an attempt to recruit young Britons to Iraq and Syria.
One
user asked him: 'I havent any traveling and i'm underage but what do
you mean with no worries about money. honestly I don't know how to
change money into tukish or syrian money. How does it work? I can't ask
my parents or they will now [sic]'.
Despite
the poster admitting he is a child and exhibiting clear naivety, Abu
Abdullah responded: 'If u have $ or £ then u fine, any other currency
exchange it to $ or £ before u get here and [God willing] u will be fine
[sic].'
Another message described the 'welcome pack' new ISIS recruits receive when they complete theIr induction process.
'After training u get a ak47 and magazines (4) a vest pack, grenade [sic]' he posted on Ask.Fm.
Another message contained detailed marriage advice for potential recruits.
Muhammad Hamidur Rahman
A former supervisor at Primark who wanted to join the world's most feared terrorist group, only to be killed in Syria.
Muhammad
Hamidur Rahman, 25, from Portsmouth, was shot dead in a gun fight in
July, a day before the Muslim festival if Eid, his family said.
His
father, Abdul Hannan, 52, an Indian restaurant worker, said the family
received a text message from a friend of Rahman in Syria who informed
them that their son was dead.
Rahman
became the second British jihadist from Portsmouth to die in Syria. The
first was his friend Iftekhar Jaman, 23, who died in December.
Rahman's
father, Mr Hannan, said that Jaman went to Syria first at the beginning
of last year, and then took his son there by contacting him through
social media.
He
said that Rahman did not tell any member of his family that he was
going to Syria, but suddenly disappeared from Portsmouth. Days later,
they received a call from him saying he was in Syria.
Mr Hannan said: 'He asked us to pray for him, and said he wanted to become a shaheed (martyr) for the sake of Allah.'
Mashudur Choudhury
He became the first Briton to be found guilty of travelling to Syria to fight in the civil war.
Police
said the conviction of Mashudur Choudhury, 31, right, was likely to
pave the way for others returning from the fighting to be prosecuted.
The father of two went to fight with Al Qaeda to escape the shame of lying to his family about suffering from cancer.
Choudhury, from Portsmouth, borrowed £35,000 from his family, claiming it was for medical treatment.
But he blew it on foreign holidays, a luxury car and prostitutes.
Desperate
to atone for his actions and 'make something of himself' he resolved to
become a martyr fighting the brutal regime of Bashar Assad.
But
he is believed to have failed the selection process to join a hardline
group of Syrian rebels and was thrown out of their training camp in
disgrace.
He was arrested by British anti-terror police on his return to Gatwick in October last year.
After
a 12-day trial at Kingston Crown Court, West London, Choudhury was
found guilty of engaging in conduct in preparation for terrorist acts.
Ifthekar Jaman
Hampshire-born Ifthekar Jaman, 23 (pictured as a child) died last year in a battlefield clash in Syria
The young Briton boasted of fighting '5-star jihad' in Syria but was killed.
Ifthekar Jaman, 23, died last year in a battlefield clash 2,000 miles from his Hampshire home last December.
He
was one of an estimated 350 British men to have taken up arms with Al
Qaeda-linked groups in Syria – where they are known as British Kataa'ib,
meaning British Brigade.
Speaking
a month ago, Jaman declared he was ready to die as a martyr, vowing: 'I
don't plan to come back. Life is for the hereafter... it's an eternal
paradise so the sacrifice is small.'
He also urged fellow Britons to join him, using his Twitter account to glory in his hate-filled missions.
He described fighting in Syria as '5-star jihad' because of its 'relaxing' nature.
Photographs
showed Jaman – a supporter of fanatical British cleric Anjem Choudary –
apparently manning armed checkpoints in the Middle Eastern war zone
just before his death.
