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Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Jihadi John on 'kill list' of British ISIS fighters in Syria as ministers threaten more targeted drone strikes to take out terrorists

.Michael Fallon ordered the drone strike which killed Reyaad Khan, 21

  • .Minister insists legal advice from Attorney General was 'absolutely clear' 
  • .Warns of more jihadis in Syria plotting attacks in UK, US and Australia
  • .Pushes for a new Commons vote on bombing ISIS 'brain cell' in Syria
Reyaad Khan may have been on a Government 'kill list' with at least ten British ISIS fighters on it, including executioner in chief Mohammed Emwazi, known as Jihadi John.
The Prime Minister and Defence Secretary Michael Fallon have both refused to reveal if it exists, but have said they would launch fresh drone strikes on Britons in Syria if it is in the UK's interests.
Mr Fallon today vowed to launch more targeted attacks on a list of terrorists in Syria if they pose a direct threat to Britain. 
A Government 'kill list' with at least ten British ISIS fighters on it could include executioner in chief Mohammed Emwazi, known as Jihadi John
A Government 'kill list' with at least ten British ISIS fighters on it could include executioner in chief Mohammed Emwazi, known as Jihadi John
The Defence Secretary ordered the extraordinary use of military force in Syria without parliamentary authority to kill Cardiff schoolboy Reyaad Khan, 21, who was accused of plotting bloody attacks on the streets of Britain.
Mr Fallon warned there were more jihadis in Syria orchestrating atrocities in the UK, Australia and the United States and he 'would not hesitate to do it again'.
And he attacked the 'absurdity' of British armed forces being authorised to carry out missile strikes against ISIS in Iraq but not in neighbouring Syria, described as the 'brain cell' of the fanatical group. 
Mr Fallon warned that more than 'two or three' ISIS militants in Syria were still plotting 'extremely dangerous' terror attacks on the streets of Britain, targeting public events and the armed forces with the intention to kill.
While the government has refused to be drawn on who else might be targeted in future bombing raids, there is little doubt that if Jihadi John could be found ministers would be ready to take him out.
He told BBC Radio 4's Today's programme: 'There are other terrorists involved in other plots that may come to fruition over the next few weeks and months and we wouldn't hesitate to take similar action again,' he said.
'There are a number of terrorists out there in Syria, based in and around Raqqa, Isil's headquarters, who are actively involve in planning attacks on our streets, who are planing attacks on the streets of Australia and on the streets of the United States.'
Mr Cameron stunned the House of Commons yesterday with the revelation that for the first time in modern history the UK had carried out a military strike in a foreign country outside of a war.
The Prime Minister told MPs that Khan, who is believed to have arrived in Syria in 2013, was behind murderous plots on the streets of Britain and there was 'no other means to stop him'.
The strike against him was authorised by Mr Fallon at a meeting of the National Security Council to prevent what Mr Cameron called a 'very real threat to our country'.
Two other ISIS militants, including British national Ruhul Amin, were also killed in the attack on Khan on August 21. No civilians died.
A third, Junaid Hussain, was killed three days later by a US drone in a joint operation with the UK. 
Defence Secretary Michael Fallon, pictured today in Downing Street, defended the targeted drone strike to kill a British jihadi in Syria and vowed he would do it again
Michael Fallon insists 'we must carry out strikes like this'
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Reyaad Khan, 21, from Cardiff, (left) and Ruhul Amin, from Aberdeen, (right) appeared together in an ISIS recruitment video last year aimed at luring jihadists to Syria and Iraq
Reyaad Khan, 21, from Cardiff, (left) and Ruhul Amin, from Aberdeen, (right) appeared together in an ISIS recruitment video last year aimed at luring jihadists to Syria and Iraq

FATHER OF OTHER BRITISH JIHADIS FEARS HIS SONS WILL BE NEXT

The father of Nasser and Aseel Muthana, both friends of Reyaad Khan from Cardiff who fled to Syria at the same time, fears they may be next.
Nasser Muthana, a former medical student, appeared in the ISIS recruitment video alongside Khan and fellow drone strike victim Ruhul Amin.
Ahmed Muthana told The Guardian: 'I am frightened because my sons are out there too. I worry that they could be on a hit list. I don't think I will ever see my sons again.
'I know I won't see them again. I am sad they have gone'.
He added: 'I don't believe what Cameron is saying. The government has said things like this before. It's just like Tony Blair and Iraq. In five years' time we'll be looking back at this and trying to find out the truth about it'.
The grieving mother of Reyaad Khan was today 'sick with grief' over the death of her terrorist son killed in an RAF drone strike.
Rukia Khan, 41, who begged her son to return home, has been left devastated after he was killed in Syria in a targeted attack authorised by the UK Government.
His father Nazim, 46, was today caring for his wife at the family's Cardiff home which Reyaad fled to join Islamic State jihadists two years ago.
His parents were 'healing their wounds' on the revelation that their son was the first British citizen to be killed in a targeted drone attack.
Speaking on the doorstep of his Cardiff terraced house Nazim said: 'I must go and look after my wife as she is very sick.
'I will not be making any comment about what happened to Reyaad.' 
The British strike in Syria has raised serious questions about the legality of the decision and sparked claims the British families of dead ISIS militants could now sue the government.
Mr Fallon insisted that there was no other way to prevent Khan from overseeing terror attacks around the world.
'This action was absolutely legal providing it was necessary and proportionate,' he told ITV's Good Morning Britain.
'There was no other way of dealing with these particular terrorists, they weren't going to come back to this country to be prosecuted or stand trial.
'There was no other way of preventing the kind of armed attack they were involved in planning.
'Any country has the right to defend itself from an armed attack and that's what we did.'
Mr Fallon denied the Government has a specific 'kill list' but said he 'would not hesitate' to carry out a similar strike.
'It's the other way around, it's the terrorists out there in Isil headquarters in Raqqah in north-east Syria it's they who have a kill list,' he added.
'They have plans to mount a series of attack on Britain, our job is to identify those attacks, identify the terrorists and where we can forestall them.
'But if you're asking me would we hesitate to take similar action again today, tomorrow, next week absolutely not we would not hesitate.' 
The revelations have reignited debate about Britain's future role in wider military action in Syria. 
Conservative Crispin Blunt, who voted against military action in Syria in 2013 and now chairs the foreign affairs committee, told BBC Radio 4's World At One: 'We need to understand whether the self-defence case stands up in this.
'It is going to be difficult for us to do it without access to the intelligence, which is why I would support a full reference to the Intelligence and Security Committee to look at the precise circumstances of this particular strike.' 
The SNP has demanded sight of the intelligence which prompted the UK Government to carry out the 'extra-judicial killing without trial'.
Humza Yousaf, SNP MSP and the Scottish Government's International Development Minister, said the Conservative administration has 'ridden roughshod' over Parliament's prohibition of military action in Syria with its drone strike on Khan and Amin, who was from Aberdeen. 
Mr Yousaf suggested the UK Government could share the intelligence with party leaders if it was deemed too sensitive to share with Parliament as a whole.
'If it were truly an act of self-defence it would be helpful for the UK Government to share the intelligence behind that, if that is sharing it with party leaders or sharing it with Parliament,' he told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme.
'The democratic will of the parliament was not to have military intervention in Syria when this was brought to the parliament a couple of years ago, and that parliamentary will has been ridden roughshod over so we need the reasons why.'
He added: 'We have to know that there was a legal basis behind what was done.
Mr Cameron was humiliated in 2013 when Tory rebels joined with Labour to vote down a plan to launch missile strikes against the Assad regime.
Senior ministers including Mr Fallon, Chancellor George Osborne, and Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond have agreed there is a 'strong case' for action against ISIS in Syria as well as neighbouring Iraq.
Reyaad Khan and Ruhul Amin appeared in ISIS recruitment video
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A vote on joining bombing raids against ISIS is expected in the Commons next month.
Mr Fallon told the BBC: 'At some point this new parliament will have to rethink the absurdity of us being able to strike against Isil in Iraq but not in their command and control centre in Syria.
'We have to think much more deeply about how we deal with braincell of Isil which is driving this operation.' 
Labour's acting leader Harriet Harman told MPs the Labour leadership would look at any case for expanding on-going British bombing in Iraq into Syria.
Ms Harman said: 'We will carefully consider any proposals in relation to military action in Syria the Government brings forward. But we all need to be clear about what difference any action would make to our objective of defeating Isil, about the nature of any action and its objectives, and the legal basis.
'Potential action must command the support of other nations in the region, including Iraq and the coalition already taking action in Syria.' 
 

COUNTDOWN TO A KILLING: How Cameron went from defeat on bombing Syria to launching a drone strike against a British jihadi

The controversial drone strike to kill British jihadi Reyaad Khan came almost two years to the day after David Cameron was defeated in a vote on launching military action in Syria.
In August 2013, the Prime Minister asked MPs for permission to carry out bombing raids against the Assad regime following a suspected chemical weapons attack.
But Tory rebels joined with Labour to defeat the plan by 285-272. A year later Parliament approved the RAF joining airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq but not in neighbouring Syria.
However, Mr Cameron was often at pains to stress that he reserved the right to order military action without parliamentary approval if there was a 'direct threat to the British people' or to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe.
RAF Reaper drones had been carrying out surveillance over Syria but ministers had insisted it would require 'further permission' for them to use weapons in the country
RAF Reaper drones had been carrying out surveillance over Syria but ministers had insisted it would require 'further permission' for them to use weapons in the country
Cameron reveals RAF drone strike killed Cardiff jihadi in Syria
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LEGAL ROW OVER RIGHT TO KILL HAS ECHOES OF BLAIR'S IRAQ WAR

The row over the legality of the drone strike in Syria has echoes of the way Tony Blair took Britain to war in Iraq more than a decade ago.
The Labour Prime Minister justified the 2003 invasion on the basis of disputed reports about weapons of mass destruction.
The then attorney general, Peter - now Lord - Goldsmith, changed his mind about the legality of war, first rejecting then approving the invasion. The legal advice was not published at the time but extracts were released by the Chilcot Inquiry in 2010.
The Labour party has now called for the legal advice on the missile strike against Reyaad Khan to be published - something David Cameron has refused.
Ministers insist that the legal advice given by Tory attorney general Jeremy Wright was 'absolutely clear'.
Under Article 51 of the UN charter, countries have an 'inherent right' to act in self-defence 'if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations'.
But it does not mention the right to launch a pre-emptive strike to prevent a future attack. 
The debate will now focus on the extent to which Khan - living 3,000 miles away in Syria - posed a direct threat to Britain. 
Reyaad Khan left Britain for Syria in 2013, and quickly became a senior figure in ISIS, appearing in a recruitment video last year.
In the spring, there was concern about plots to target the Anzac Day remembrance parade in Australia in April and VE Day celebrations in May.
Mr Cameron says that intelligence agencies 'identified the direct threat to the UK' posed by Khan and informed senior ministers.
A meeting of the National Security Council in May agreed in principle that 'should the opportunity arise, then the military should take action'.
The Attorney General, Jeremy Wright, told the meeting that there was 'there was a legal basis for action'.
Shortly after this meeting, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon gave his authorisation for a strike against Khan in principle if the military could meet a series of assurances including minimising the risk of civilian casualties.
Mr Fallon was kept updated on developments, but it was then left to the RAF to make the final decision on if and when to strike. 
On August 9 it emerged that a plot to target the Queen at a VJ Day parade on August 15 had been disrupted.
On August 21, an RAF Reaper drone used a laser-guided Hellfire missile to destroy a vehicle in which Khan was travelling in Raqqa, the ISIS capital.
It was the first time in modern history that British forces have engaged in military action in a foreign country outside a war.
But it was another 17 days before Mr Cameron revealed details of the strike to the House of Commons. 
 

'He doesn't have the charisma to be a terror mastermind': Welsh Muslims 'not convinced' Reyaad Khan could order an attack

David Cameron revealed the RAF killed Reyaad Khan in a secret operation on August 21 because the former student was 'directing murder on our streets'
David Cameron revealed the RAF killed Reyaad Khan in a secret operation on August 21 because the former student was 'directing murder on our streets'
A 21-year-old British fanatic killed by an RAF drone in Syria was not charismatic or powerful enough to mastermind an atrocity in the UK, friends said today.
David Cameron revealed the RAF killed Reyaad Khan in a secret operation on August 21 because the former student was 'directing murder on our streets'. 
Today the Muslim community in his home town expressed its 'shock' at his death and said they believe he was not a direct threat to Britain.
Saleem Kidwai, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Wales, told the BBC: 'We are not convinced (about the evidence) because he was not the kind of charismatic person who could control something like this from far away.
'As the news spread around the community the questions are being asked, what information did the intelligence or the government have'.
The Prime Minister argued his death was an act of self defence but friends believe the 'brainwashed' former student should have been intercepted by the security services before he fled Cardiff for Syria last year. 
Friend Mohamed Islam said that his family is 'devastated' by his death and his mother Rukia, who had begged him to return home, was 'broken' by the news.
He said: 'The family heard a couple of weeks ago. I don't think they were informed of the British involvement'.
Mr Islam has called on David Cameron to reveal 'the truth of this incident'. 
He added; 'It's a devastating situation for us as a local community. In the coming days and months the members of the public would like more details.'
People at the mosque used by the family of Reyaad Khan admitted that they had no idea he had been killed by an RAF drone. 
A member of the mosque who only wanted to be known as 'Shamsu' said about British forces having killed Reyaad: 'It makes it worse because it's like your own country that's killed you.
'But they [the government] should've stopped him before he even got there because he's a child at the end of the day and he's been manipulated.' 
Mokaddus Miah, Secreatary of Jalalia mosque in Grangetown, Cardiff, said: 'If a person has done something bad then he has what's coming to him. Anyone who wants to do something wrong must be punished. But I would have preferred to see him tried in a British court.' 
Another friend, who did not want to be named, believed his parents were not aware he was killed by the RAF.
He said: 'It is terrible, devastating, for them.'
Khan was believed to be towards the top of a British 'kill list', which the Government has denied exists.
Friends of Reyaad Khan demand more details about RAF strike
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JUNAID HUSSAIN: Briton killed by U.S. was no.3 on wanted list

Junaid Hussain, 21, was no.3 on America's ISIS target list due to his hacking credentials and key role as a foreign fighter recruiter for the jihadi group before the United States killed him in a drone strike.
Hussain, who fled Birmingham in 2013, was married to 'Mrs Terror' Sally Jones, a 44-year-old rocker turned Muslim convert from Kent. She met the jihadi fighter online and left the UK with her son to join him in Syria.
Jones, who now refers to herself as Sakinah Hussain, reportedly told a British jihadi bride that her husband had not been killed in an airstrike and was alive and well, which David Cameron proved false today.
Hussain's wide, dubbed Mrs Terror, said she is 'blessed her husband is still alive,' according to the British jihadi bride.
Junaid Hussain was married to 'Mrs Terror' Sally Jones, a 44-year-old rocker turned Muslim convert from KentJunaid Hussain, 21, was no.3 on America's ISIS target list due to his hacking credentials and key role as a foreign fighter recruiter for the jihadi group before the United States killed him in a drone strike
Junaid Hussain, 21, was no.3 on America's ISIS target list due to his hacking credentials and key role as a foreign fighter recruiter for the jihadi group before the United States killed him in a drone strike. He was married to 'Mrs Terror' Sally Jones, a 44-year-old rocker turned Muslim convert from Kent
Just before his death Jones and her husband made headlines after they sent bombmaking manuals and boasted of 'lone wolf' terror attacks to investigative journalists, posing as jihadi brides.
Computer hacker Junaid was well known on social media, frequently creating new accounts in order to threaten terror attacks on the West.
In June this year, he was linked with an IS plot to attack an Armed Forces Day parade in south London.
It was believed the plan was to carry out pressure cooker bomb attack, similar to the Boston Marathon attack in 2013.
The intended targets were soldiers and bystanders on the route. The plan was scuppered only after Hussain unwittingly recruited an undercover journalist.
He told the investigator: 'It will be big. We will hit the kuffar (unbelievers) hard InshAllah. Hit their soldiers in their own land. InshAllah. Soldiers that served in Iraq and Afganistan will be present. Jump in the crowd and detonate the bomb.
'They think they can kill Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan then come back to the UK and be safe. We'll hit them hard InshAllah.' 

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