Terror alert over return of jihadis from Syria

Ministers have been told that over the past two years more than 400 Britons have gone to Syria and it is now thought just over half have returned. In January alone, 16 people were arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences related to Syria compared with 24 arrests in the whole of last year.

A Whitehall source said: “The threat from Syria is serious and presents real challenges for intelligence agencies. But not all of those returning will start engaging in UK-based attack planning. For some, their jihad is done, others will help others travel to Syria, while others will raise funds for fighting.”

The number of returnees, first revealed by The Sunday Times, has emerged after details were reported of the first instance of a British-based jihadist staging a suicide attack in Syria.

Abdul Waheed Majeed, 41, is suspected of being responsible for driving a lorry into a jail in Aleppo and detonating a bomb earlier this month. He is among an estimated 20 Britons who have been killed in the fighting in the war-torn state.

Photographs were published last month of two British brothers, named in reports as Akra and Mohamed Sebah from north London, who are believed to have died in battle in Syria in September. The two men were pictured together brandishing guns in camouflage gear and were reportedly hailed as “martyrs” and “young British lions” in propaganda messages.

Meanwhile, two women appeared in court last month accused of trying to send 20,000 euro (£16,500) to fund alleged Islamist terrorists fighting in Syria. Londoners Nabal Masaad, 26, and Amal El-Wahabi, 27, are due to appear at the Old Bailey in May.