A senior British military officer has warned Britons fighting for Islamic State that "we will find you and kill you".

On a visit to London, Major General Rupert Jones said the terrorist group, also known as Daesh, "knows its fate".

He said: "We as an international coalition have always been very clear: if you are going to take up arms on behalf of Daesh and you are going to kill innocent civilians we will find you and we will kill you.

"If you take up arms with Daesh, then we will use all forces necessary to stop you. It doesn't matter if the fighter is from Britain or France or from Iraq: if you take up arms we will use legal forces to stop you.

Image: Major General Jones was awarded a CBE in November 2014

"This only ends one way and it ends with the destruction of Daesh."


Despite the warning, Major General Jones said the number of foreign fighters going to Iraq and Syria to join IS had been reduced to "a trickle" as the terror group's regime "has been exposed for what it is".

Coalition airstrikes have killed about 45,000 fighters during the international campaign against IS, including "nearly all" of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's trusted advisers and deputies.

Image: Briton Reyaad Khan was killed by an RAF drone in Raqqa in 2015

Major General Jones appeared to distance himself from recent reports that the IS leader's location had been identified.

He said: "If we in the international coalition knew where he was, for certain then he wouldn't stay alive for very long. I think if he was dead then there probably would have been an announcement to say he's dead.

"Most of Baghdadi's lieutenants are dead. He is now frankly in hiding. His narrative of some kind of caliphate, well that's exposed as a lie when you're in hiding yourself."

Image: Ruhul Amin, from Aberdeen, was killed in the 2015 airstrike

As the Trump administration begins a review into its military commitment to fight IS, there have been reports that thousands more US troops might be sent to Syria to help re-take Raqqa.

Major General Jones said the coalition is assessing the situation in the city "very carefully".

He added: "I think the key point is that we and our partners are going to prevail in Raqqa, and if they need a little bit more assistance then I'm confident that will be provided."