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DOZENS of disillusioned British jihadists are on the run from the Islamic State in Syria.

At least 30 fighters have split from a unit near the terror group’s HQ in Raqqa.

The young men are understood to have fled north towards the border with Turkey.

Many of them travelled to fight Syrian president Bashar Assad’s forces but have instead got into gun battles with rebels.

There have been British casualties, Londoners Mohammed el-Araj and Abu Hujama al-Britani died fighting extremists.

One Brit told researchers at the International Centre for Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence: “We came to fight the regime and instead we are involved in gang warfare.

“But if we go back to Britain, we will go to jail. We are being forced to fight – what option do we have?” They face up to 30 years in jail if they return to the UK.

Britain last night moved closer to air strikes against IS as it joined a US-led coalition who aim to crush the terror group.

PM David Cameron said “nothing is ruled out” after US secretary of state John Kerry made a call to arms.

Kerry described IS as a ­“genocidal, territorial-grabbing, caliphate-desiring, quasi-state with a regular army” that must be wiped out.

At the Nato summit in Wales, he called on the coalition countries to make clear how far they would go to achieve that aim.

He said: “We need to attack them in ways that prevent them taking over territory, to bolster Iraqi security forces and others in the region that are prepared to take them on – without committing troops of our own.”