The British jihadists who could be freed from Syrian camps. Shamima Begum and other Britons who travelled to Syria to join Isis are still there, and may escape or be released after the fall of the Assad regime. Tuesday December 10 2024, 7.50pm, The Times. Jack Letts, known as “Jihadi Jack” left the UK in 2014 to join Isis in Syria. Dozens of Isis fighters, brides and children from Britain are still living in the squalid camps and prisons of northeast Syria.. The rebels’ successful march on Damascus has led experts to warn of the security risk to the UK if the remaining adult Britons escape or are freed in the resulting chaos.. Sir Alex Younger, the former head of MI6, said the end of Bashar al-Assad’s regime risked a “serious spike” from the threat of “a very large number” of newly freed Isis prisoners. Experts have also warned that the conditions in the prisons and camps of Kurdish-controlled northeast Syria make them a breeding ground for radicalisation.. There are also concerns that western Syria could become a new Islamist state under Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the former Al-Qaeda group that deposed Assad.. The Kurdish forces guarding the jihadis in the northeast are backed by US troops, but it is not clear if they will be kept in place when Donald Trump, an isolationist, returns to the White House next month.. Advertisement. The volatility of the situation in northeast Syria was further underlined by Israel’s decision to launch airstrikes on the Qamishli airbase.. About 70 people are being held, but Reprieve, a human rights charity, said more than half of them are children and some are victims of trafficking.. The individuals who travelled from Britain to join Isis include:. Jack Letts, 29, left the UK in 2014 to join the Islamic State group after converting to Islam as a teenager. He fought on the front line in Iraq, once getting badly injured, but claims he never killed anyone.. He left Isis three years later, after becoming disillusioned with the group, but was captured and remains in custody in a Kurdish jail. “I made a big mistake, and that’s what happened,” he told the BBC in 2019, saying he used to want to be a suicide bomber when he was part of the group, but later believed such attacks to be “haram”, or forbidden.. Advertisement. His parents, John Letts, 64, and Sally Lane, 62, were found guilty of one charge of funding terrorism by sending their son £223 in 2015.. Mohammad Anwar Miah, from Birmingham, claimed he travelled to Syria to undertake “humanitarian work” and was never involved with Isis.. But Syrian witnesses claimed the 45-year-old was part of a team that removed organs from detained prisoners, which were either transplanted into injured jihadis or sold into the organ trade to raise funds for Isis.. Miah, who allegedly renamed himself Abu Obayda al-Britani, left Birmingham in September 2014.. At one point Miah was held alongside the so-called “Beatles” gang responsible for beheading British hostages. In an interview with the Daily Mail he claimed that he never swore allegiance to the group and only treated civilians.. Advertisement. Shahan Choudhury, from Tower Hamlets, east London, was one of the last British Isis members to be captured in 2019 at the final battle for Baghouz.. Shahan Choudhury was in a notorious prison in Syria. He was moved this year to Panorama, the high-risk men’s prison in Hasakah city, and has been stripped of his British citizenship.. Choudhury, 37, was radicalised in the UK by Anjem Choudary during 18 months on remand in Belmarsh prison in southeast London before he was acquitted.. He became a fighter for an Isis brigade after initially travelling to do charity work, according to a Kurdish intelligence report. He denies ever having used a weapon and says he regrets his decision. “I didn’t know it would turn out this ugly,” he told The Times in May.. Mahak Sabrina Aslam, followed her husband from their home in Tower Hamlets months after his arrival in Syria.. Advertisement. She has also had her British citizenship revoked and lives separately in al-Roj camp, where Shamima Begum is held.. • What does fall of Assad mean for jihadi brides like Shamima Begum?. She stays in the dangerous and disease-ridden camp with their four surviving children. Their eldest daughter was killed in an explosion.. A British mother in the same camp, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “My kids were all sick for ages. That happens here often. I just want them out. We have just been melting away in the heat and freezing in the winter.. “They have dental problems and we are constantly afraid of camp authorities taking away our children. Many have disappeared without a trace.”. Advertisement. Ibrahim Ageed, 29, travelled to Syria from Leicester as a volunteer medic at the age of 21. The NHS trainee, originally from Sudan, moved around several hospitals with Isis to treat fighters before he was arrested.. Ibrahim Ageed had worked for the NHS in Leicester before joining Isis in Syria. SHAYMA BAKHT FOR THE TIMES. “The longer people are kept here, the more ideology breeds in groups,” he said of the 4,000-man prison complex.. Abdullah Hammad Ali was brought to Syria by his British-Pakistani mother when he was just seven.. Now 16, he was moved from the Roj camp, which is home to 2,500 people, to a rehabilitation camp called the Hori Centre.. He said his peers “all hate Isis — we just want to forget and be normal children again”, and claims to have been too young for military training under the caliphate.. At the centre he is taught to “establish good from bad”, to draw and play musical instruments, but fears he will be moved to an adult prison in 2025 when he turns 18.. The lawyer representing Shamima Begum believes Assad’s fall could present a new opportunity for her to return to the UK.. Shamima Begum travelled to Syria aged 15, and is now in al-Roj camp. SAM TARLING/GETTY IMAGES. The British-born 25-year-old was one of three school girls to travel to Syria aged 15, before marrying an Isis fighter with whom she had three children.. She is now in al-Roj camp after having her citizenship revoked. Her lawyers believe that if the camp is closed, she could lodge a fresh claim on human rights grounds as her life would be at risk in the Syrian desert: “Watch this space,” Tasnime Akunjee said.. Video Icon. VIDEO. Assad’s British wife in exile as Syrians celebrate in UK. December 08 2024, 6.00pm. David Brown. , Chief News Correspondent |. Tom Witherow. , General news reporter. Loophole protects parents who take children abroad to join terror group. November 29 2024, 1.00pm. Max Kendix. , Political Reporter. ANALYSIS. Could chaos in Syria fuel Islamic State’s comeback?. December 10 2024, 2.00pm. Catherine Philp. , World Affairs Editor. PROMOTED CONTENT. Previous article. ‘I saw my Sednaya prison cell on TV — no one should ever experience that’. Previous article. Next article. Could chaos in Syria fuel Islamic State’s comeback?. Next article
