How 700 Britons have joined Islamic State jihadis…but half are already back in UK
NEARLY 700 Britons have gone to fight with jihadis in the Middle East, new figures reveal.
They are part of a force of some 6,000 Europeans who have flocked to the war zones.
Most have headed to Syria and Iraq, mainly to join Islamic State’s brutal campaign, experts believe.
Half of the Britons are already back with many being closely monitored amid fears they could be planning terrorist outrages here.
Details emerged as the EU’s Commissioner for Justice Vera Jourová said about 6,000 Europeans have joined jihadi groups.
But she admitted the number could be even higher due to the difficulty of tracking foreign fighters.
She put the number from France, which has a large North African immigrant population, at nearly 1,500.
She told French newspaper Le Figaro: “At the European level, we estimate that 5,000-6,000 individuals have left for Syria.”
She also said the jihadi attacks in Paris and Copenhagen earlier this year had triggered a rethink across Europe in how to tackle the threat.
She said: “At the time of the attacks in Paris and Copenhagen, we decided not to allow ourselves to be guided by fear.”
Instead member states are working on preventing people going off to become jihadis because focusing on those already seeking to leave or returning from the wars means intervening “too late”.
Ms Jourova cited British research which found 22 causes of radicalisation – and only one related to religion.
The others included “a desire for adventure, boredom, dissatisfaction with their situation in life or a lack of prospects”.
Ms Jourova called for more intelligence sharing between member states’ police forces and justice systems.
In January MI5 director general Andrew Parker said the number of British extremists who had gone to Syria and Iraq to fight as jihadis had risen from 500 to 600.
But that figure is understood to have risen still further and is now close to 700.
Many extremists who have gone out to fight have been killed while some have moved on from Iraq and Syria to other countries including Turkey.
But about 350 have returned which represents a massive challenge for the security services.
Some of the returnees have had their fill of conflict – especially when their romantic dreams of becoming Islamic freedom fighters were confronted with the horror of IS mass executions of prisoners.
The security services prioritise their resources by concentrating on those returnees who are thought to pose a threat.
But these fine judgments can go wrong with the two killers of soldier Lee Rigby having been the target of seven different investigations without their attack plan being spotted.
Surveillance of one of the killers, Michael Adebolajo, was stopped in April 2013 – a month before he and Michael Adebowale struck on the streets of South London.
More than 215,000 people have been killed in Syria’s four-year war, which is increasingly dominated by jihadist groups.
EXPRESS