Former MI6 chief admits it's 'impossible' to keep tabs on every Briton fighting in Syria as he estimates 300 have already come back to the UK



Former MI6 chief estimates 'up to 300 people' are already back in UK

Richard Barrett says intelligence services will have to prioritise greatest risk

It has emerged about 500 Britons believed to have travelled to Syria and Iraq

MP warns 1,500 Britons may have been recruited by extremists in Syria and Iraq



A former director of MI6 has warned intelligence services faced an 'impossible' task of tracking the hundreds of Britons who have returned to UK after fighting in Syria.

Richard Barrett, a former head of counter-terrorism at MI6, estimated 'possibly up to 300 people have come back to the UK' already.

His comments came after it was claimed that around 500 Britons may have travelled to Syria and Iraq - a higher estimate than the 400 claimed by Foreign Secretary William Hague.

Richard Barrett, a former director of MI6, has warned intelligence services faced an 'impossible' task of tracking the hundreds of Britons who have returned to UK after fighting in Syria

Mr Barrett told the BBC: 'Clearly they'll have to prioritise and they'll have to choose those that they think are likely to pose the greatest risk.

'Beyond that I think they'll have to rely very much on members of the community and other people expressing their concern and worry about the behaviour of perhaps their returned friend or family member.'

Mr Barrett said that while recruiting networks across Europe suggested of greater radicalisation than people just going on their own, it did not necessarily indicate that people would progress from fighting in Syria to being a terrorist at home.

Police across the UK have made 65 Syria-related arrests over the last 18 months, including 40 in the first three months of this year alone.

Sir Peter Fahy, who leads on the Prevent counter-terrorism strategy for the Association of Chief Police Officers, said 'huge amounts of material' was being taken down from the internet every week as part of the effort to stop people being radicalised.

Yesterday, a top counter-terrorism expert warned Britain will feel the repercussions of Syria and the rise of Islamic extremism within its own borders for 'many years' to come.

Recruitment video: Nasser Muthana, 20, (right) and Reyaad Khan (left) appear in an Isis recruitment video in Syria

Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Police's assistant commissioner and head of specialist operations, warned that Britain would feel the long-term consequences of the conflict.



She said it represented a terrorist threat to the UK, and that young British Muslims who have travelled to the war-torn country to fight might commit violence when they return.



'I'm afraid I believe that we will be living with the consequences of Syria - from a terrorist point of view, let alone the world, geopolitical consequences - for many, many, many years to come,' Ms Dick told BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend.

Former Tory defence secretary Liam Fox warned that Britain's security services may need greater powers of surveillance to monitor British fighters returning from Iraq and Syria

The warnings come after footage emerged online apparently showing several young British jihadists in Syria in a recruitment video for the extremist militant group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (Isis), in which they urge UK Muslims to join insurgents there and in Iraq.

One of the men has been identified as 20-year-old Nasser Muthana, from Cardiff.

Another has been identified as Reyaad Khan, 20, a former pupil at Cardiff’s Cantonian High School.

Nasser Muthana is thought to have travelled to Syria with his 17-year-old brother Aseel Muthana.



The father of the two brothers has spoken of his shock and said he feared his sons would be killed if they stayed in the country.



Ahmed Muthana said he believes they were brainwashed in the UK.

Mr Muthana said he felt his son had let down both his family and his country, saying: 'This is my country. I came here aged 13 from Aden when I was orphaned. It his his country. He was born here in the hospital down the road. He has been educated here. He has betrayed Great Britain.'



A mosque in the city where the brothers worshipped meanwhile has distanced itself from the struggle in Syria and said it was not the source of radicalism, despite claims that a notorious Saudi cleric had preached there.

Former Cardiff councillor Mohammed Sarul Islam told BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning he did not believe young men in the city were being radicalised in mosques but instead some had been influenced by 'internet clerics.'



Former Tory defence secretary Liam Fox warned that Britain's security services may need greater powers of surveillance to monitor British fighters returning from Iraq and Syria and said officials could need more freedom to intercept communications by extremists.



He told the Guardian that the UK needed to 'reconsider' the argument of restricting the powers of the state, saying: 'The whole area of intercept needs to be looked at. We have got a real debate, and it is a genuine debate in a democracy, between the libertarians who say the state must not get too powerful and pretty much the rest of us who say the state must protect itself.'



But the Financial Times reported that the Foreign Office was halving its counter-terrorism budget, slashing it from £30m a year to £15m as part of plans to cut £100m from the department's budget by next year.

MP Khalid Mahmood today told Sky News that the number of young Britons recruited by extremists in Iraq and Syria may be as high as 1,500.



He said border controls needed to be stepped up 'in order to ensure that we see the people coming through and deal with them.'



A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: 'Countering terrorism is one of the Government's top priorities and it therefore remains one of the FCO's largest programmes.

