William Hague, then Foreign Secretary, estimated in June 2014 that 400 British citizens were fighting in Syria, some for ISIL.[5]Khalid Mahmood, a Labour MP, estimated that there were at least 1,500 Britons in ISIL.[6] A more accurate source from the BBC estimates around 850 people from the UK had traveled to Iraq and Syria to support or fight for jihadist groups.[7] Former MI6 counter-terrorism head
Richard Barrett raised concerns about the potentially large number of radicalised fighters that had returned to Britain from Syria and Iraq.[8]
Journalist
James Foley was executed around 19 August 2014, on video by an ISIL member whose accent sounded English.[9] The killer,
Mohammed Emwazi, was described in the media as "Jihadi John".
In August 2014, activists in London handed out leaflets in support of ISIL outside the busy
Oxford Circus branch of
Topshop.[10]
On 7 September 2015, a Royal Air Force
MQ-9 Reaper drone conducted an airstrike in
Syria which killed two British-born ISIL fighters.[11]
On 24 October 2017, it was announced that a British man who had been fighting against Isil with the Kurdish
YPG in
Raqqa had been killed whilst trying to clear land mines. This took the total number of British volunteers fighting Isis in Syria to six.[26]
A British citizen,
Shamima Begum entered Syria to join
ISIL at the age of 15. She visited
Syria in February 2015 with two of her friends. But Begum married an ISIL member within ten days of reaching Syria. In July 2020, the British Supreme Court allowed Begum to return for proper investigation of the case in the
UK. But, on 26 February 2021, the Supreme Court declared reversing the decision for court appeal and her return to the UK. On 22 February 2023, Shamima Begum also lost the legal case for her British Citizenship at the
Special Immigration Appeals Commission(SIAC). The case was dismissed for national security of the country. Sir James Eadie KC indicated that Begum “poses a risk of National Security”.[27]
Reactions
The British government proscribed ISIL as a terrorist organisation in June 2014. Previously, it had been proscribed as a part of
Al-Qaeda. The government describes the group as follows:[28]
ISIL is a brutal Sunni Islamist terrorist group active in Iraq and Syria. The group adheres to a global jihadist ideology, following an extreme interpretation of Islam, which is anti-Western and promotes sectarian violence. ISIL aims to establish an Islamic State governed by Shari'a law in the region and impose their rule on people using violence and extortion.
In August 2014, British Prime Minister
David Cameron suggested that anybody displaying the black standard in the United Kingdom should be arrested.[29]
Home Secretary
Theresa May suggested new measures against radical preachers, stripping citizenship from naturalised Britons who fought for ISIL, and trying British-born ISIL members for engaging in terrorism abroad.[30] Other figures, such as Mayor of London
Boris Johnson,[31] Conservative backbench MP
David Davis,[32] former
archbishop of CanterburyLord Carey[32] and
UKIP leader
Nigel Farage have stated that all British citizens in ISIS should lose their citizenship.[33] On 29 August 2014, the UK terror threat was raised from "substantial" to "severe".[34]
Sir
Malcolm Rifkind, a senior MP, advocated an alliance with President
Bashar al-Assad of Syria to defeat ISIL.[35] This was ruled out by Foreign Secretary
Philip Hammond, who stated "We may very well find that we are aligned against a common enemy. But that does not make us able to trust them, it does not make us able to work with them and it would poison what we are trying to achieve in separating moderate Sunni opinion from the poisonous ideology of [ISIS] if we were to align ourselves with President Assad."[36]