A group of British Islamists affiliated with Islamic State (IS) in
Syria
has grown so disillusioned with fighting that they are seeking ways to
return home without being subjected to stiff jail sentences when they
return, it has been reported.
A British jihadist claiming to represent 30 fellow nationals said
they were increasingly frustrated at fighting against other rebel
groups, having originally arrived in Syria to fight the regime of Bashar
al-Assad instead.
He told researchers that they are willing to give up their arms and
restart their lives in the UK but feared long prison sentences,
The Times reported.
"We came to fight the regime and instead we are involved in gang
warfare. It's not what we came for but if we go back [to Britain] we
will go to jail," the man told researchers from the International Centre
for Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ICSR) at King's
College London, via social media.
"Right now we are being forced to fight — what option do we have?"
The militant said the 30 were willing to undergo deradicalisation
programmes and submit to surveillance if they were allowed back.
News of the disillusionment was confirmed by an anonymous Isis spokesperson, who told
IBTimes UK that "not all, but some" of the British fighters want to return home.
At least 500
Britons are believed to have joined the fighting in Syria's civil war over the last two years, with an estimated 20 thought to have died, including six in clashes with other rebels.
The 30 who have expressed the desire to return to the UK are
affiliated with IS -- previously known as Isis -- the jihadist group
that recently beheaded two US journalists and are threatening to do the
same to a British aid worker.
IS in entangled in a bitter war with the government and rival rebel
groups, including al-Qaeda's affiliate al-Nusra Front, for control of
parts of Syria.
Some Jihadists have expressed concern that death in fighting against
fellow Islamists might not qualify as martyrdom, thus forfeiting their
chances for an afterlife in paradise.
Peter Neumann, the director of ICSR, said the British government
should consider setting up a deradicalisation program for repentant,
less-hardened jihadists, suggesting they could become powerful spokesmen
against IS propaganda.
"The people we have been talking to... want to quit but feel trapped
because all the government is talking about is locking them up for 30
years," Neumann told The Times.
"If you only have a law-and-order message than you risk creating a
self-fulfilling prophecy where they simply go to the next battlefront
and become really hardened extremists."
The UK government recently
raised
the official threat level from substantial to severe amid fears that
extremists returning to the UK from Iraq and Syria might carry out
attacks on British soil.
