The father of two young men believed to be fighting alongside Islamic State in Syria has said he fears they could be on a British government “hitlist”.

Nasser Muthana, 21, went to school in Cardiff with Reyaad Khan, who David Cameron confirmed on Monday had been killed in an RAF drone strike in Syria along with fellow Briton, Ruhul Amin. Muthana is now believed to have joined Isis with his 18-year-old brother, Aseel.



Their father, Ahmed, a retired electrical engineer, said on Tuesday he was concerned his sons could be a target for British forces.



“I am frightened because my sons are out there too,” he said. “I worry that they could be on a hitlist. I don’t think I will ever see my sons again.”

Downing Street conceded on Tuesday that a list of names of several British jihadis was drawn up at the meeting of senior national security council members that approved the drone strike that killed Amin and Khan. It is understood that the list contains names of jihadis who are still alive.

The defence secretary, Michael Fallon, said on Tuesday that the government was prepared to carry out further drone strikes against British jihadis in Syria who represented a threat of attacks on British soil.

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Fallon said there were more than three people who represented such a threat to the UK that airstrikes against them could be authorised. He refused to say that this amounted to an American-style “kill list”.

Muthana said he would not believe Khan was plotting an attack on British soil until he saw the evidence.

“I don’t believe what Cameron is saying. The government has said things like this before. It’s just like Tony Blair and Iraq. In five years’ time we’ll be looking back at this and trying to find out the truth about it.”

Muthana said he had spoken to Khan’s father about his son’s death, and said he could not believe his son could have been involved in plotting an attack on Britain. “I saw him at the mosque and told him I was sorry. He was crying. He’s a good man. He can’t believe that his son was involved in something like this. Nobody can believe it.”

Muthana said that if the evidence was produced he might be able to accept that the government was right to act as it did. “But I don’t believe we will see that evidence.”



In the past, Muthana has criticised his sons for leaving the UK to fight with Isis.

Nasser, a talented, sport-oriented young man born and raised in the Welsh capital who planned to go to medical school, appeared with Khan in an Isis recruitment video in the summer of 2014 urging other Muslims to join the fighting. At the time, Muthana told the Guardian that his sons had “betrayed” Britain.

Now Muthana’s anger has been replaced by deep regret. “I know I won’t see them again,” he said. “I am sad they have gone.” He said he did not have any contact with them.

“But I don’t believe they are involved in any plots against Britain. They have made it clear they are not coming back. If they aren’t coming back, how can they be involved in anything like that?” He said he had “no idea” if they posed a threat to moderate Muslims in Syria.

At Khan’s family home in the Riverside area of Cardiff, a man in a dressing gown aged around 40 answered the door on Tuesday morning but refused to comment. “We want to be left alone,” he said. “We have no comment to make.”



A family friend who visited Khan’s mother on Tuesday afternoon said the young man’s relatives did not believe he could have been involved in a terrorist plot against the UK. “They don’t believe he could have done something like that. He would never have done the sort of thing they are suggesting. They are very upset,” the friend said.

Another friend said his mother and father - Rukia, 41 and Nazim, 46 - were still waiting for “clarification” of the circumstances surrounding his death. “It is a very difficult time for them,” the friend said.

Some others who knew Reyaad were not so sympathetic. One 19-year-old woman said: “There is a saying: “an eye for eye”, which I agree with. I can empathise with David Cameron because Reyaad Khan has done wrong himself and I believe in justice being done.”

The Welsh nationalist party, Plaid Cymru, has led the calls for more information to be revealed about the intelligence that lead to the British strike.



Plaid Cymru’s defence and foreign affairs spokesperson, Hywel Williams MP said: “The killing of an UK citizen abroad in the territory of another sovereign state, and by this method is unprecedented, on the government’s own admission.

“The prime minister must explain the justification and legal basis behind his decision. He should set out the nature of the imminent threat he claims this individual posed. He should also publish the attorney general opinion.

“It is deeply troubling that the Prime Minister has undermined the clear will of parliament which voted against military strikes in Syria. The prime minister’s statement raised grave questions over the legality and transparency of the UK’s response to the crisis in Syria. He must provide answers without delay.”

Saleem Kidwai, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Wales, said: “I hope the evidence is much stronger than with the weapons of mass destruction.”

He described Khan as a “bright boy” who once dreamed of becoming the first Asian prime minister. “He was a normal child. What happened, God knows.”





Fallon denied on Tuesday that the government had a “kill list” but made clear that there had been no other way to deal with the threat. It is understood the strikes were ordered after intelligence that Khan and fellow Briton Junaid Hussain, who was killed by an airstrike, were planning attacks on the VE Day commemorations in May and the Armed Forces Day commemorative event in Woolwich on 27 June to mark the death of Lee Rigby.

Philip Hammond, the foreign secretary, was due answer questions from MPs on the foreign affairs select committee about the strikes on Tuesday afternoon. He is likely to echo Cameron, who justified the strikes in a statement to MPs on the grounds that Khan represented a “clear and present danger”.

The strike that killed Khan and Amin in the Syrian city of Raqqa on 21 August was the first time a British prime minister has authorised the targeting of a UK citizen by an unmanned aerial drone outside a formal conflict. Hussain was killed by a separate US airstrike three days later as part of a joint operation.

