Birmingham residents Nahin Ahmed and Yusuf Sarwar, both 22, who had fought in Syria for jihadist groups and were arrested on their return to the UK, pled guilty to terrorism charges. Although police believe the two fought for the Al Nusrah Front, they had initially said they were planning to join the Emigrant’s Army, and both had images of Islamic State flags among jihadist literature on their computers. Twin 16-year-old girls of Somali origin from Manchester are thought to have traveled to Syria to join the Islamic State. In a recent interview in Iraq, Sheik Qais al Qazali, leader of Asaib Ahl al-Haq (League of the Righteous), said that although he was “sorry” for the deaths of four British hostages kidnapped in 2007, he held the UK government responsible for their deaths. Qazali, whose group had kidnapped five UK hostages and killed four of them, was released by the US military in a swap for remaining hostage Peter Moore in 2009.
