An 18-year-old British national operating alongside militants against the Syrian government has been killed.
Abdullah Deghayes went to Syria via Turkey in February despite discontent of his parents.
Abdullah infiltrated into Syria with his 16-year-old brother, Jaffer, in order to join their older brother Amer, who was operating with militants against the Syrian army.
Britain’s police said the boy from Sussex has been killed “in recent weeks.”
Hundreds of Britons are reportedly operating alongside militant groups inside Syria.
Western intelligence agencies have warned that the foreign militants pose a potential security threat when they return home.
In a report to a UK Home Affairs Select Committee inquiry on counter-terrorism earlier this month, security experts raised alarm that a terror attack on British soil is “inevitable.”
The report added that the foreign militants in Syria are gaining “combat experience and forging connections with extremists” and as a result they could “return radicalized” and “seek to carry out attacks against the West.”
European Union counter-terrorism coordinator Gilles de Kerchove has called for coordinated action by European countries to prevent possible attacks in the future.
He warned that the threat posed by militants returning from Syria is “unprecedented.”
“National budgets devoted to counter-terrorism are declining across the EU. Yet the threat that we face is becoming more diverse, more diffuse, and more unpredictable.”
Rebel groups have been behind many of the deadly bomb attacks targeting both civilians and government institutions across Syria over the past three years.
