Place of Birth: United Kingdom;

Gender: Male;

Nationality: British;

General Info:
Yusuf Zubair Sarwar is a British man with Pakistani descent (born in the UK), who travelled to Syria to join an al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group

Sarwar, a part time student, left a note for his parents, who thought he was on holiday in Turkey, saying he had gone to Syria to fight “jihad” and to become a martyr.

But Sarwar’s family had reported him missing after they found a letter saying he had left to join a terrorist group called Kataib al-Muhajireen (KaM) to take part in jihad.

He was sentenced at Woolwich crown court in London to 12 years and eight months in prison with an extended licence period of five years.

Mohammed Nahin Ahmed and Yusuf Zubair Sarwar, childhood friends from Birmingham, travelled to the war-torn country in May last year after contacting Islamist extremists.

Previous online communications between the pair also discussed how Ahmed would leave and how he could not say he was going to jihad because he would “get arrested the next day”.

Traces of military grade explosives were discovered on their clothing when stopped on Heathrow Airport and hundreds of photos of the pair in Syria were recovered from a camera. They included images of the pair aiming automatic weapons.

Specialists said the images showed they had been in and around Aleppo, the scene of ongoing fighting between Syrian government troops and rebels. Traces of “military-grade explosives”, including TNT and nitroglycerine were also found on the men’s clothes and trainers.

Searches on Sarwar’s computer had included the phrases Syria rape, Syria muhajideen, jihad, turkey weapon shop, AK47, al-Nusrah, AQ training.

The two men, both from Birmingham, admitted engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorism acts when they appeared at the Woolwich Crown Court.