We have to kill them all: Minister’s verdict on British IS fighters
THE only way of dealing with most British fighters who have joined Islamic State in Syria is to kill them, a minister said yesterday.
Rory Stewart, an international development minister, said UK citizens who had travelled to the war-torn country were a ‘serious danger’ to Britain. He added that converts to the terror group believed in an ‘extremely hateful doctrine’, saying fighters can expect to be killed given the threat they pose to British security.
Hundreds of Britons are known to have travelled to Syria to fight with Islamist groups during the course of the six-year conflict. Several have been killed by USled coalition air strikes – including jihadist Sally Jones, known as the White Widow.
British authorities estimate that about 850 people from this country have travelled to Syria and Iraq to fight with Islamist groups during the conflict. MI5 chief Andrew Parker said last week that more than 100 UK fighters had been killed and another 250 have returned home.
Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live, Mr Stewart said ‘very difficult moral issues’ were involved. He added: ‘These are people who have essentially moved away from any kind of allegiance towards the British Government. They are absolutely dedicated, as members of the Islamic State, towards the creation of a caliphate, they believe in an extremely hateful doctrine which involves killing themselves, killing others and trying to use violence and brutality to create an eighth century, or seventh century, state.
‘These people are a serious danger to us, and unfortunately the only way of dealing with them will be, in almost every case, to kill them. These are people who are executing people, who have held women and children hostage, and who are torturing and murdering, trying by violence to impose their will.
‘Our response has to be, when somebody does that, I’m afraid, to deal with that.’
His remarks come days after the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, Max Hill QC, said ‘brainwashed’ young people who travelled to Syria ‘with a sense of naivety’ should be spared prosecution and allowed to return.
It was revealed earlier this month how Sally Jones, who was known as a recruiter of would-be jihadists, was killed in a Predator missile strike as she fled Raqqa four months ago.
Jones, one of the world’s most wanted extremists, fled the UK with her husband and youngest son, JoJo, in 2013. It is feared the 12-year-old was also killed.
Mr Stewart also confirmed it remained British policy to remove Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. He said: ‘We need transition to a new government, because so long as that man is in power it is going to be impossible to have a long-term, stable, sustainable future for Syria.’