DONALD Trump’s incoming director of counterterrorism has said the UK needs to welcome back British citizens who joined notorious terror cult ISIS.
But sources told The Sun as many as 100 extremists could flood the UK if jihadist bride Shamima Begum is allowed to return home from Syria.
Trump man Sebastian Gorka said the UK needs to “honour” its commitment to the fight against ISIS by taking back dozens of Brits connected to it who are living in Syria.
This includes Begum, who left Bethnal Green for Syria as a teenager in 2015.
She lost a final appeal to reclaim her British citizenship last year, and is held in a prison camp in northeastern Syria.
Gorka told The Times: “Any nation which wishes to be seen as a serious ally and friend of the most powerful nation in the world should act in a fashion that reflects that serious commitment.
“That is doubly so for the UK, which has a very special place in President Trump’s heart, and we would all wish to see the ‘special relationship’ fully re-established.”
In 2021 Biden’s administration also called for the UK to repatriate ISIS members held in northern Syria.
They argued it was a “moral responsibility” – but applied less pressure than Gorka who is marking an incoming Trump term sure to be stronger on foreign policy issues.
Begum, 25, fled her home as a schoolgirl almost ten years ago to join death cult ISIS.
The Tory government revoked her citizenship — but there were fears she could use Bashar al-Assad’s fall to launch a fresh bid to return to Britain in recent weeks.
Begum’s lawyer Tasnime Akunjee said her hopes of returning were “bolstered” after the successful revolution.
But a source warned The Sun: “If Shamima is allowed back in it could open the floodgates to 100 others.
“The security services keep tabs on those people in Syrian camps with a claim to UK citizenship.
“They pose a risk and would take a massive amount of resources to watch.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer is set to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron today at Chequers.
The pair are expected to discuss their response to the American demands.
Who is Shamima Begum?
ISIS bride Shamima Begum, who was born in Britain, was stripped of her British citizenship on February 20, 2019.
Begum had fled the UK in February 2015 with two other girls from the same school in East London to join the fledgling caliphate in Iraq and Syria which had emerged out of the chaos of war in those two countries.
On February 14, 2019, with the ISIS empire fell, she declared that she wanted to come home with her son.
But she appeared to show no remorse and called the 2017 Manchester Arena massacre of 22 people attending a concert “justified”.
According to BBC Middle East correspondent Quentin Sommerville, Begum “still believes IS propaganda”.
He said: “When I asked her about the enslavement, murder and rape of Yazidi women by IS, she said ‘Shia do the same in Iraq’.
“She had little to offer in way of apology to the millions of Iraqis and Syrians whose lives were destroyed by IS.”
Her principled position has sparked intense debate about the UK’s responsibilities to jihadis who despise the country and everything it stands for, but want to return from Syria.
The case took a dramatic turn on February 20 2019 when it emerged the Home Office had opted to strip Ms Begum of her British citizenship.
The 19-year-old claims she is “willing to change” her ways while pleading for “mercy” from Britain and says newborn son Jerah is sick.
Her appeals against the decision have all been denied.
A huge allied Western coalition has fought for years to tackle ISIS in Syria and Iraq.
The Syrian Democratic Forces – aligned with the West – has been guarding tens of thousands of captured ISIS members and their relatives in detention camps.
Some 20 British women, 40 children and ten men are thought to be among them.
Gorka’s comments were well received by UK terror watchdogs, who said British intelligence agencies would be able to closely watch those in question if they were brought home.
And Jonathan Hall KC, the independent reviewer of terror legislation, said: “Officials may not welcome this, but the numbers are not so great that — at least in the case of women, and children, for whom special considerations ought to apply on humanitarian grounds — the UK’s well-regarded counter-terrorism system could not absorb the risk.
“The burden of monitoring could be tempered, in high-risk cases, by phased return. At the very least there should be a presumption of return.”
America has been applying pressure on its allies to repatriate their citizens since the ISIS caliphate was squashed in 2019.
But Britain has traditionally refused to repatriate most of them with Labour saying it has no plans to change the policy.
Foreign secretary David Lammy said on Thursday morning that Begum will not be allowed to return to the UK.
He told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “Shamima Begum will not be coming back to the UK. It’s gone right through the courts. She’s not a UK national.
“We will not be bringing her back to the UK. We’re really clear about that.
“We will act in our security interests. And many of those in those camps are dangerous, are radicals.”
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp also said: “I do not want to see people who actively supported this appalling regime who raped, murdered and persecuted innocent people back on the streets of the UK.”
And a government spokesperson said: “Our priority remains to ensure the safety and security of the UK.
“We will continue to do whatever is necessary to protect the UK from those who pose a threat to our security.”
Who is ISIS?
ISIS, also known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, is a murderous terrorist network that officially formed in 2004.
The group, known for its barbaric public executions and beheadings, was originally part of al-Qaeda – the terrorists responsible for 9/11 which sparked the decades-long global War on Terror.
They took advantage of instability in Iraq and Syria after 2000 to rule with an iron fist.
After an injection of American troops into Iraq in 2007, ISIS lost some of its power grip in the region.
But it began to reemerge in 2011 and by 2014 the US had formed Operation Inherent Resolve.
The mission involved putting American boots on the ground in Iraq and Syria – as well as other regions in the Middle East.
In 2014, ISIS was the most powerful, best-equipped and wealthiest Islamic extremist group the world had ever seen.
By 2015 it had branches operating in at least eight other countries.
That October, their Egypt network bombed a Russian plane and killed over 220 people.
In November 2015, 130 were murdered and over 300 injured during one of their most brutal attacks on the West in Paris.
And in June 2016, a gunman who pledged himself to the murderous organisation killed at least 48 people at a nightclub in Florida.
By December 2017, ISIS had lost 95 per cent of its stolen territory.
But its core ideologies, which included a burning hatred for the Western way of life, continued to inspire countless terrorist attacks around the world.
While American combat in Iraq was officially axed in December 2021, 2,500 troops were left stationed there to work as advisers and trainers for Iraqi security forces trying to fend off extremist forces.
There are believed to be less than 1,000 still stationed in Syria.
Three of those American troops were killed in Jordan on January 28 – in a drone attack at a US military base near the Syrian and Iraq borders.
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