Tracking Syria fighters now main task for MI5 in UK

[Anthea]

BBC News UK

Tracking Syria fighters now main task for MI5 in UK

Tracking British jihadists fighting in Syria is now the top priority for MI5, the BBC has learned.

It comes after a video appeared to show UK jihadis in Syria trying to recruit people to join them there and in Iraq.

The Home Office said counter-terror police were working to get the video - posted by internet accounts linked to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) militants - taken off line.

The family of one of the men in the video said they were "heartbroken".

Medical student Nasser Muthana, 20, from the Cardiff area, appears in the footage using the name Abu Muthanna al-Yemen.

Isis has made rapid advances through Iraq in recent weeks.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister David Cameron said its fighters were plotting terror attacks on the UK.

BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner said MI5 was having to prioritise the greatest amount of its casework on tracking British jihadists in Syria.

'Propaganda'

An estimated 400-500 UK fighters have been recruited by Isis, which is engaged in fierce fighting with Iraqi government forces.

One of them, a Briton identified as Abu Dujana al Hindi, says he has a "message to the brothers who have stayed behind".

The video cannot be verified, but BBC correspondent Paul Adams said it came from social media accounts with known links to Isis and had probably been filmed in Syria.

"It appears to show British jihadis intent on joining the fight in Iraq," he said.

Full Article:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27947343