The Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner has publicly declared that the UK faces repercussions from the Syria conflict and threats of Islamic extremism from within its own borders for “many years to come.”
Cressida Dick, a counterterrorism expert, said that British Muslims who had gone to Syria may commit violence upon their return.
“I'm afraid I believe that we will be living with the
consequences of Syria – from a terrorist point of view, let alone
the world, geopolitical consequences – for many, many, many years
to come,” Dick told BBC Radio 4.
Her comments shortly followed the release of a video attempting to recruit jihadists in Syria which
was released online.
Titled “There Is No Life Without Jihad,” the propaganda
clip uploaded to YouTube by ISIS’s AlHayat Media Center allegedly
shows a line-up of militants who came to Syria and later to Iraq
from all over the world.
Among them were several Britons, including a 20-year-old medical
student and his 17-year-old brother. The Muthana brothers' father
called on his sons to return home. He told The Sunday Telegraph
that they had been high achievers and must have been
“brainwashed.”
"I feel sick and devastated my son is caught up in this –
they were brought up to love and respect my country, Britain. Now
I fear they may come back in coffins,” he said.
Two men have already been arrested in the UK in connection with
their activities in Syria, and are suspected of being part of the
same network. A 19-year-old and a 23-year-old were suspected of
having received terrorist training. However, they were set free
without charges being pressed, South Wales Police released a
statement on Saturday.
“We are increasingly concerned about the numbers of young people
who have or are intending to travel to Syria to join the
conflict. The advice is to avoid all travel to Syria – anyone who
does travel is putting themselves in considerable danger.
Travelling abroad for the purpose of engaging in terrorist
related activity is an offence and we will seek to prosecute
anyone engaged in this type of activity,” the statement
read.
“The issue is not unique to Cardiff or Wales and is a
priority for police and security services across the UK,” it
added.
In the first three months of 2014, some 40 arrests have been made
in connection with the conflict in Syria, according to the Daily
Telegraph.
Richard Barrett, MI6’s former director of global
counter-terrorism, told Sky News's Murnaghan show that as many as
300 men who had joined the fighting in Syria had already come
back to the UK.
“It's an absolute nightmare [for the security agencies]
because with such numbers there's no way that they have the
resources to be able to look at all of them,” Barrett said.
An estimated 12,000 foreign fighters have gone to Syria since the
war began and the war in the country is “likely to be an
incubator for a new generation of terrorists,” according to one
of Barrett’s co-authored reports, released this month, the
Independent on Sunday reported.