Terror suspect held at Heathrow after Turkey deports British Islamic State suspect

A 26-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of Syria-related terror offences as he arrived in the UK from Turkey hours after authorities in Ankara said a British Islamic State suspect had been deported.

The man, who has not been named, was arrested by the Metropolitan Police’s counter-terrorism command on Thursday as he landed at Heathrow Airport.

Scotland Yard said he was held “on suspicion of preparation of terrorist acts under section 5 of the Terrorism Act 2006”. It added that the arrest was “Syria-related”.

Earlier, Turkey’s Interior Ministry said it had deported eight so-called Islamic State suspects, including a Briton and seven Germans.

It did not identify any of the suspects and the Home Office in London also refused to disclose any details, saying it did not comment on individual cases.

Turkey has declared its determination to deport alleged foreign IS members who are held in its prisons or in parts of Syria it controls.

That came after Ankara was condemned by some western governments for sending forces to parts of north-east Syria to drive out Kurdish fighters it considers to be terrorists even though they were allies in the US-led push to defeat IS in the region.

Turkey has already deported a US national and IS suspect who was stuck in a no-man’s land between Turkey and Greece after Athens refused him entry.

Ankara said the United States had agreed to take him back.

He has been named in reports as Muhammed Darwis B and is said to be a US citizen of Jordanian descent

Last month it was confirmed two suspected IS terrorists, dubbed The Beatles because of their accents, had been taken from Syria into American custody.

Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, both in their 30s, were moved by American security services to an “undisclosed location” amid fears they could escape custody as Turkish troops invaded the Syrian Kurdish-held region of north-eastern Syria.

They were described as “the worst of the worst” by US president Donald Trump.

Shamima Begum, the Bethnal Green schoolgirl who fled to Syria to join IS in 2015, was subsequently stripped of her British citizenship by then-Home Secretary Sajid Javid, prompting her to take legal action against the UK.

In August, Mr Javid also stripped 24-year-old “Jihadi” Jack Letts of his British citizenship.

The convert was 18 when he left his Oxfordshire home to join IS in Syria in 2014.

Source: LBC News