Syria militants biggest threat since 9/11: UK

British militants operating inside Syria pose the biggest terror threat since 9/11 when they return home, a top Whitehall security official has warned.

Charles Farr, head of the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism in the UK’s Home Office, said the security threat from those militants fighting against the Syrian government is “the biggest challenge” facing the police and intelligence agencies since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the British newspaper The Evening Standard reported on Tuesday.

“Syria is different from any other counter-terrorism challenge that we have faced since 9/11 — because of the number of terrorist groups now engaged in the fighting, their size and scale, the number of people from this country (Britain) who are joining them, ease of travel, availability of weapons and the intensity of the conflict,” Farr said.

Earlier this month, British Immigration Minister James Brokenshire also warned that the UK faces a major security threat from the militants who travel to Syria with amateur aid convoys and receive training by terrorist groups fighting the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

UK intelligence sources told the Daily Telegraph in December last year that from among the 1,000 Westerners fighting against the Syrian government over 300 are British nationals.

Syria has been gripped by deadly crisis since 2011. According to reports, the Western powers and their regional allies — especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey — are supporting the militants operating inside the Arab country.