Britain’s intelligence agencies intensified operations to identify the people appearing in a video which urges young British-Muslims to join the Jihadi movement in the Middle East.
Meanwhile, the Dutch Minister of Interior Ronald Plasterk said the number of Dutch jihadists travelling to Iraq is on the rise.
Though Pasterk did not give numbers, during a press confernce he described the figures “worrying” and a “substantial threat” , Xinhua reported. Next week more figures will be announced in a new report on jihadism by the Dutch Intelligence Service. At least one Dutch jihadist conducted a suicide attack in Iraq, Plasterk already said in April.
According to media reports, about 130 Dutch jihadists recently travelled to Syria and Iraq. They have been involved in heavy fighting and sometimes in atrocities. Of these people about 30 have returned. There are particular concerns about the number of returning jihadists. Last month, a suspected French jihadist, having travelled to Syria, killed three people at the Jewish Museum in Brussels.
One of the British-Muslim militant appearing in the video was identified as Nasser Muthana, 20, from Cardiff.
His father Ahmed Muthana, told the BBC his other son had gone with Nasser, and that someone must be “driving” them.
Ahmed said he is “heartbroken” his son left the UK to fight in Syria.
In the film, would-be medical student Nasser urges others to fight in Syria and Iraq.
The 13-minute video, entitled “There is No Life Without Jihad”, emerged on Friday and appears to show six fighters – apparently including three Britons – urging Muslims to join the conflicts abroad.
An estimated 400-500 UK fighters have been recruited by the now-outlawed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis), which has a significant presence in Syria and is engaged in fierce fighting with Iraqi government forces.
The BBC has learned that tracking British jihadists fighting in Syria is now the top priority for MI5.
Ahmed, whose son Nasser appears in the footage using the name Abu Muthanna al-Yemen, told BBC Wales that he feared his sons would “come back to me in a coffin”.
He told the BBC his 17-year-old younger son, Aseel, had also travelled to Syria and that another man in the video was someone he recognised from Cardiff.
Asked about the video in which Nasser appears, he said: “I’m sad that he’s gone without telling me he’s going. He disappeared and when I saw it on the television, I thought ‘what is he doing there’?”
He described his son – who had been offered places by four universities to study medicine – as quiet, well-educated and intelligent.
Nasser had left home in November, saying he was going to Leicester or Shrewsbury to study, said Mr Muthana.
“I received a phone call saying that he’s in Turkey and that’s it.” He said he feared his son had now been radicalised.
“I don’t think that’s Nasser talking, it’s someone else is teaching him to talk like this because the attitude of Nasser is 100% completely different,” he said.
“Who led them to go there?.. Is he going to kill or do anything?
“Someone is driving those kids to do this problem.”
The video cannot be verified, but BBC correspondent Paul Adams said it was probably filmed in Syria.
The footage emerged after Isis militants made rapid advances through Iraq in recent weeks, seizing several northern cities and surrounding the country’s biggest refinery.
Prime Minister David Cameron has said its fighters are plotting terror attacks on the UK.
