European born Jihadis fighting with Islamist Syrian rebels

Hundreds of European Jihadists are now fighting in Syria

• And the U.S. and Western governments are funneling money, aid and arms to them through Islamist Turkey and Islamist Saudi Arabia.

The UK Telegraph reports that up to 100 British Muslims are fighting in Syria’s civil war amid fears some could return home to carry out terrorist attacks, senior intelligence chiefs disclosed.

There are “hundreds” of Europeans now fighting in Syria, some of whom are with groups linked to al Qaeda, the Home Office told MPs.

The British-born Jihadis are said to have joined the fight with Jabhat al-Nusra, the country’s most militant al-Qaeda gang.

The fighters have come from range of ethnic backgrounds include young Asians, converts to Islam and men from north African backgrounds.

Some are said to have fought in conflicts elsewhere while others waging war for the first time.

Officials warned of the risk to Britain and other European nations posed by foreign fighters now gaining military experience in Syria.

Charles Farr, the director of the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism, admitted the war in Syria had become "particularly challenging" for the British government.

Speaking as the Home Office’s annual report on its counter-terrorism strategy (Contest) was published, Mr Farr warned the security services were keeping close tabs on the escalating crisis.


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Pro-Assad Syria cleric among mosque bomb dead.

He admitted that a large numbers of foreign fighters, including from Britain, were active in Syria.

Mr Farr, a former MI6 officer, admitted that an assessment of between 70 to 100 people having travelled from Britain to fight in Syria “wouldn’t be far wrong”.

Some 600 terrorist attacks involving Syrian groups took place last year, including 60 suicide deaths.

He said that authorities were watching the efforts by Jabhat al-Nusra to extend its activities beyond Syria “very carefully”.

His comments came amid growing fears that some fighters could be sent back to Britain, with the sole purpose to plan and commit an act of terrorism on home soil.

(UK Telegraph)

Oil pipeline bombed in Homs

A suicide bomber has blown himself up during evening prayers inside a mosque in Damascus, killing a top Sunni Muslim preacher and long-time supporter of President Bashar Assad and least 13 other people, state TV reported.

 

The assassination removes a pillar of support of the Alawite leader among the minority sect that has risen up against him.

 

Sheikh Mohammad Said Ramadan al-Buti, an 84-year-old cleric known to all Syrians as a religious scholar who appears often on TV, was killed in the explosion in the Eman Mosque in the central Mazraa district, according to the report.

 

Syrian TV showed footage wounded people and bodies with severed limbs on the blood-stained floor of the mosque and later, bodies covered in white body bags lined up on the mosque's floor. The explosion occurred at a time the mosque would have been packed with worshippers for Friday evening prayers.    (.3news.co)

Aftermath of a Jihadist car bomb in Damascus