20 Sep 2024
Monday 7 October 2013 - 11:11
Story Code : 55558

British extremists use Syria as training ground before returning home

British extremists use Syria as training ground before returning home
TEHRAN (FNA)- British Home Secretary Theresa May warned that extremists "of a Jihadi mindset" are using the Syrian crisis "as a nursery" before returning to Britain as trained terrorists.


"What we have seen for some time now, is that a number of British people traveling out to Somalia, were now seeing people travel out to Syria," May said on BBC 1s Andrew Marr Show on Sunday.

She said they are receiving live training in the Syrian conflict and then returning home to Britain. May added that many of them are already considered to be possible terrorists by UK security services.

While such members of the Syrian opposition have previously been called "foreign fighters," May said she viewed them as "potential terrorists, some of whom will be of a jihadi mindset".

Mays comments come just days after Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem told the UN General Assembly that "terrorists from more than 83 countries" are operating in Syria, killing Syrian soldiers and civilians.

In March, the British Home Offices annual report titled The United Kingdoms Strategy for Countering Terrorism highlighted a similar threat.

"There are now hundreds of foreign fighters from Europe in Syria. And when UK residents return here there is risk that they may carry out attacks using the skills that they have developed overseas," the report said.

As the crisis continues in Syria more than two years after it first began - the Home Office still does not believe the country is safe from home-comers.

In August, British Prime Minster David Cameron voiced his will to join a US-led strike on the Arab country to punish President Bashar Assad for the governments alleged use of chemical weapons outside Damascus, which took hundreds of lives. But the initiative was lost in the British Parliament, which opted to give more time for a political solution to be found.

This finally took shape in UN Security Council Resolution 2118 which was passed unanimously and calls for the scheduled destruction of Syrias chemical weapons, and for chemical weapons experts to be given unfettered access.

On Sunday, a team from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was reported to have begun the lengthy and difficult task of destroying Syrias chemical weapons stockpile.

By Fars News Agency

 

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