British jihadi mocks Cameron travel ban on Twitter

Updated

One of the British jihadis hit by international sanctions has appeared to mock the move.

A post from a Twitter account thought to belong to Sally-Anne Jones taunted the Government after it was revealed that she was being made subject to a travel ban as part of attempts to stem the flow of Islamic State recruits.

The tweet referred to "laughing out loud" at the measure and finished with a smiley face symbol.

The post, made on an account under a version of a pseudonym linked to the 46-year-old, said: "Just found out from a article that David Cameron has put me on a UN Sanctions list as i lol @ England for giving me a travel ban :)"

The ownership of the account has not been independently verified.

Jones, from Chatham in Kent, was one of four Britons suspected of leading recruitment drives and plotting terrorist attacks against the UK and elsewhere added to a United Nations list.

The other three are Omar Hussain from High Wycombe, Nasser Muthana from Cardiff and Aqsa Mahmood from Glasgow.

Jones travelled to Syria in 2013 with her husband, Junaid Hussain, who was killed in a US air strike in August. She is accused of using social media to recruit women to join IS.

Mahmood went to Syria to join IS in 2013 and is thought to be a key figure in the al-Khanssaa brigade, a female brigade in Raqqa which was established by IS to enforce Sharia law. She has used social media to recruit and support IS.

Hussain, who is also known as Abu-Said al-Britani, travelled to Syria last year and also uses social media to recruit others to join IS.

Muthana joined IS in Syria in 2013 and has appeared in propaganda and recruitment videos. He has also threatened the UK in social media posts.

Approval by a UN committee means the group are subject to a global asset freeze and travel ban, but the move is also designed as a deterrent to dissuade would-be fighters.

One of five names submitted by the UK to the sanctions committee is still to be approved. More are expected to be put forward.

It is the first time since 2006 that the UK has sought to place its own nationals under the United Nations sanctions regime set up to tackle suspected al Qaida terrorists and extended to IS.

Detailed dossiers of evidence were submitted to show they were "participating in the financing, planning, facilitating, preparing, or perpetrating of acts or activities" related to IS.

The Government is also stepping up its attention on the threat posed by IS, with Prime Minister David Cameron preparing to unveil a new £10 million UK-run counter-propaganda drive to blunt the effective use of social media by IS to spread its message.

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