Hundreds of Britons fighting in Syria – MI5 chief – WBNews

The number of British Islamists who have gone to Syria to fight in the war there is in the “low hundreds”, a senior UK intelligence official says. Andrew Parker, head of domestic intelligence service MI5, told a parliamentary hearing the conflict was attracting al-Qaeda UK sympathisers. Their interaction with militant groups abroad was a “very important strand of the threat” the UK faced, he said. One in 10 foreign militants in Syria is believed to be from Europe. Most of them come from Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Libya. MI5 has previously said that up to 200 British fighters are in Syria. Last month, BBC News learnt that a group of 20 young men from the UK were fighting against forces allied to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on the Turkish border. Syria has become a very attractive place for people to go for that reason – those who support or sympathise with the al-Qaeda ideological messageAndrew Parker, Head of MI5 Syrians grow numb to pain of war According to the Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King’s College London, most British jihadists are in their 20s, university-educated and Muslims of British Pakistani origin. Up to 20 people from Britain’s Sudanese community and several ethnic Syrians from the UK have also gone to fight in Syria. More than 100,000 people have been killed and about two million people have fled abroad since the uprising against Mr Assad began more than two years ago. Syrian troops have retaken the rebel-held town of…more detail