1,500 Brits waging war in Middle East: UK MP

A British MP says at least 1,500 UK-based Takfiri elements have travelled to the Middle East to engage in militancy against local governments.

As the UK government struggles to identify the suspected British terrorist that beheaded US journalist, James Foley, earlier in the week, a lawmaker in the country’s parliament said the government estimates that only 400-500 Britons have travelled to fight in Syria is “nonsense.”

The Muslim MP, Khalid Mahmood, who represents Perry Barr in Birmingham, told US-based news magazine Newsweek that he estimated at least 1,500 young British extremists have gone to the Middle East since 2011 to join the foreign-backed militancy in Syria and Iraq.

The development comes as British lawmakers from all parties are pressing for a debate on measures to adopt in a bid to prevent radicalization at home.

In the face of the growing ISIL Takfiri threat, Lord Carlile, the UK government’s former counter-terrorism adviser, called for reintroduction of Control Orders, which kept UK-based terrorism suspects in their homes without access to phones or internet.

Control orders were introduced in 2005 by former prime minister, Tony Blair, and allowed terrorism suspects who had not been convicted to be tagged and ordered to report to police.

Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel warned on Thursday that the ISIL terrorists who executed the American journalist are “beyond anything that we’ve seen, so we must prepare for everything.”

“[ISIL] is as sophisticated and well-funded as any group that we have seen. They’re beyond just a terrorist group,” he said, adding, “They are tremendously well-funded.”

Hagel, however, did not mention the state sponsors of the notorious Takfiri terrorists.

This is while Saudi Arabia and Qatar are widely suspected of supporting the Takfiri terrorists in Syria and Iraq.