Thousands of ISIS sleeper cells could attack Britain despite the Syria defeat
Thousands of Islamic State terrorists defeated by the Western-backed military have ghosted into Syria, forming sleeper cells and emerging to launch bloody attacks.
Despite the caliphate’s military defeat by Kurdish-led forces fighters are still plotting revenge attacks on countries like Britain and remain under feared Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s command.
The Mirror has been in northern Syria for the past 10 days, where more than a dozen Kurdish troops have been slaughtered by IS-fifth columnists while we were there.
Everywhere, soldiers and locals fear Baghdadi’s sleepers – especially in Raqqa, which was taken from IS in 2017 but has been rocked by terrorist bombs recently.
Chillingly Syrian Democratic Forces commanders, allies of a western anti-IS coalition warned Britain faces more attacks, inspired by the resurgent jihadi menace.
As we learned in our exclusive prison interview with jailed “Beatles” jihadi Alexanda Kotey, Kurdish military chiefs stressed the most violent fighters were Brits who were killed, are in prison or may even be back in the UK.
And tens of thousands of junior “Cubs of the Caliphate” raised by hate-filled mothers are poised to be the next generation of killers unless they can be saved from the fanatical group’s clutches.
Mervan Kamishlo is a Syrian Democratic Forces commander, who smashed the caliphate with his comrades.
He warned: “There still thousands of sleepers here. When we succeeded militarily they disappeared.”
Asked if they and mastermind Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi could inspire attacks in Britain he said:
“Absolutely 100 per cent they could – they are alive and they have a command structure.
“They still think they are a state. Their sleeper network is a mafia. They will come back.
“Baghdadi is smart militarily. He and his commanders are clever mentally.
“We believe he is in Syria and able to communicate with his commanders. This presents a global threat to everyone not just here but in the west too.
“But the most dangerous of the fighters were not locals Arab fighters – they were Europeans, yes the British. I fought against them.
“They were most dangerous. Clever, well educated and that they gave up so much back home shows commitment.
“Some were big Daesh commanders. They were smart and that mixed with terrorism makes them dangerous.”
Kamishlo believes all of the 800 British fighters who came here are either dead, jailed or have fled elsewhere, possibly back to Europe.
He warned: “There are tens of thousands of Islamic State children in the refugee camps whose minds are poisoned.
“They witnessed beheadings, torture, murder, men hanging in the street, women beaten, killed because their hair is showing and war.
“Daesh showed the world how dangerous they are.
“These children need lots of psychological, specialist treatment to help them, or they will be a danger to the world in years to come. Like a ticking bomb. It is a tragedy but it is also a big fear.”
In seven years of fighting jihadists in Syria the Kurdish YPG- which later formed the Syrian Democratic Forces- lost 12,000 troops with 20,000 injured.
Syria’s complex, multi-sided war began in 2011 with the Assad regime brutally trying to quell an unarmed uprising after the Middle East’s Arab Spring.
It became an armed rebellion, which split into groups, before ISIS migrated from neighbouring Iraq.
Half of Syria’s population has been un-housed, 5.6 million are refugees, half a million have died – including many women and children and IS has been driven underground.
The group’s former Raqqa HQ, which the SDF took four months to overrun, is still riddled with IS cells.
The final battle for Baghouz, Daesh’s last slither of land left tens of thousands of Islamic State brides and children in secure SDF refugee camps in northern Syria.
The SDF wants to secure Rojava, where IS made its last stand, and stop the sleeper cells.
Everywhere locals whisper fears about the cells – fuelled further by raging crop fires, the worst in years, sweeping through Syria.
Source: Mirror
