More heads will roll?
Held by ISIS, five jihadi Brits who want to go home: Wantaway fighters stripped of weapons and marched to ‘punishment centre’
- The men had their weapons taken and went to the area in Raqqa, Syria
- The five Britons were with three Frenchmen, two Germans and two Belgians
- They had complained of fighting other rebel forces, not the government
- They were also concerned that they were killing fellow Muslims
A group of disillusioned British jihadists who wanted to return home after fighting for Islamic State in Iraq and Syria have been taken prisoner by their militant commanders.
The men were stripped of their weapons and marched to a punishment centre in the militant-held city of Raqqa in Syria, according to reports.
The five Britons were accompanied by three Frenchmen, two Germans and two Belgians. They had complained that they were spending their time fighting other rebel forces instead of the government of Bashar al-Assad and were concerned that they were killing fellow Muslims.
Five British jihadists who wanted to return home after fighting for Islamic State have been taken prisoners
The men were rounded up after apparently delaying returning to Britain for fear that they would be arrested on arrival.
But security sources say the new development shows that defectors cannot afford to try to bargain with British authorities and should just ‘drop their weapons and leave’.
Until now, IS is thought to have operated an open door policy which has allowed around 250 Britons to return but the start of US air attacks has made militant commanders paranoid that spies could direct attacks.
It means that the formerly welcoming atmosphere for Western militants has now changed to suspicion as the terrorist group begins to turn on its own fighters, according to one security source.
