600 British Terrorists Stopped from Entering Syria

Local Editor

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said in comments reported Saturday that some 600 Britons were stopped from going to Syria to try to join "ISIS" and other extremist groups.

Meanwhile some 800 others have made it through since 2012, with half of them still thought to be inside the war-torn country, Hammond added.

The foreign secretary said the number of Britons stopped in Turkey had gone up in the past eight months due to Ankara reassessing the scale of the threat posed to Turkey by "ISIS."

He further considered that greater coordination between London and Ankara had also played a part.

Relatively, Hammond said besides foreign airstrikes, the interception of terrorists aiming to link up with "ISIS" was placing extra strain on the group in its Raqa headquarters.

"There is evidence "ISIS" is finding it difficult to recruit to the brigades in Raqa because of the high attrition rate of foreign fighters," he added.

In the context, British fighter jets joined the US-led coalition bombing "ISIS" targets in Syria after parliament backed the move in December.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team