Britain has most returning jihadis UK freedom fighter is killed

MORE Islamic State fighters have returned to Britain than to any other Western country, a report said yesterday.

Britain had the highest proportion of returning jihadis in Europe, according to Richard Barrett, a former MI director of global counter-terrorism.

It was ‘inevitable’ that some of those returning from Syria and Iraq would remain committed to violent extremism and would pose ‘a huge challenge’ to security, said his report for the Soufan Centre think-tank and the Global Strategy Network.

Globally, it found 40,000 foreign fighters had joined IS since 2011, of whom more than 5, 00 had returned home. Around 5,000 were from EU countries, of whom around 1,200 had returned.

Some 850 Britons joined the terror network, of whom around 425 were said to have returned.

By comparison, 1,910 travelled from France but only 271 reportedly returned – raising questions about why so many more were able to come back to the UK.

More than 100 British fighters were believed to have been killed, including notorious IS recruiter Sally Jones, but around 325 remain unaccounted for and could still pose a danger.

A BRITISH man who travelled to Syria to fight against Islamic State was killed by an explosion days after watching the fall of Raqqa.

Jac Holmes, pictured, one of the longest serving Britons fighting with Kurdish militia against the terror group, died on Monday while he was clearing an area of landmines to make it safe for civilians.

Hours previously he had written of how he had walked through the liberated streets of Raqqa, the extremists’ former capital. The 24-year-old former IT worker from Bournemouth had no military experience before he joined the Kurdish People’s Protection Units in January 2015.

His mother Angie Blannin called him a hero and said: ‘He had the courage of his convictions to go out and do something where he thought that the West were not doing enough.’