Britons killed in Syria drone attacks

Updated

David Cameron has told the Commons that two British citizens fighting for Islamic State (IS) were killed in an RAF drone attack in Syria, while a third died days later in a US airstrike. Here are profiles of the three men.

:: Reyaad Khan

Khan was 20 when he appeared in an Isis propaganda video titled "There Is No Life Without Jihad" in June last year together with two other Britons urging Westerners to join the war.

The youngster, from Cardiff, is thought to have travelled to fight in Syria late in 2013.

His Facebook page revealed that he was a Chelsea FC fan who enjoyed playing computer games FIFA 12 and Call Of Duty.

After appearing in the video with a Kalashnikov assault rifle against his shoulder his mother said she believed he had been "brainwashed" into joining IS.

In a direct appeal to her son, the woman, who asked to remain unnamed, sobbed as she said: "Reyaad, please come back home. I'm dying for you. You're my only son."

Before leaving for Syria, Khan attended Cardiff's Al-Manar Centre (ACT) together with Nasser Muthana, who was also filmed for the IS recruitment video.

The mosque denied the pair had been taught extremist views there and blamed the internet as an "alarming source for radicalisation".

Mr Cameron said Khan had been killed on August 21 when he was targeted by an RAF remotely piloted aircraft while travelling in a vehicle in Raqqah, Syria.

:: Ruhul Amin

Amin, 26, featured alongside Khan and Muthana in the 13-minute IS recruitment video under the name "Brother Abu Bara al Hindi".

Wearing sunglasses and a white headscarf, he could be heard saying: "Are you willing to sacrifice the fat job you've got, the big car, the family you have?

"Are you willing to sacrifice this, for the sake of Allah? If you do Allah will give you back 700 times more."

Also known as Abdul Raqib Amin, he was born in Bangladesh and grew up in Aberdeen before reportedly moving with his family to Leicester.

In July 2014 he boasted on ITV's Good Morning Britain that he had been "involved in a few combats" in Syria.

Explaining the moment he left Britain, he said: "I left the house with the intention of not to go back. I'm going to stay and fight until the (caliphate) is established, or I die."

A leading member of Aberdeen's Muslim community, who did not want to be identified, said he was not someone who "stood out in any particular way".

He was killed in the same airstrike as Khan.

:: Junaid Hussain

Computer hacker Hussain was described as a key IS operative before he was killed by a US drone strike on August 24.

The 21-year-old, from Birmingham, was said to have been number three on the Pentagon's "kill list" of IS targets.

It is believed that he fled Britain to travel to Syria in 2013, and in June this year he was linked to a plot to attack an Armed Forces Day parade in south London.

The plan to explode a pressure cooker bomb - killing soldiers and bystanders on the route - was reportedly foiled after Hussain unwittingly recruited an undercover investigator from The Sun to carry it out.

In June 2012, aged 18, Hussain was jailed for six months after he admitted making prank calls to a counter-terror hotline and publishing former prime minister Tony Blair's address book.

He was a member of TeaMpOisoN (TeamPoison), a group which claimed responsibility for more than 1,400 offences where personal and private information has been illegally extracted from victims in the UK and around the world.

Hussain was reportedly married to a Muslim convert named as Sally Jones, a mother-of-two from Kent who once was a member of an all-girl punk rock group.

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