ISIS ON THE MARCH: HUNT FOR 'JIHADI JOHN'
How seven radicalised young Britons a week are taking the Gateway to Jihad
The open stretch of rugged Turkish border where up to 20
foreign recruits cross into Syria and Iraq each day has been dubbed the
‘Jihad Express’ or ‘Gateway to Jihad’. It is the same route used by the
Cardiff trio who appeared on a jihad recruitment video (inset), a
one-time rapper, a computer hacker and one-time privately educated
college boy – all of whom are now at the centre of British
investigations as they boast on Twitter of their exploits. Up to 1,000
Britons and UK residents have now joined the extremists spreading terror
across Syria and Iraq. It is no coincidence that virtually all the
young radicalised Britons have joined up by crossing this porous, poorly
policed Turkish border of mountain passes and plains without
confronting security.
How seven radicalised young Britons a week are taking the Gateway to Jihad
- The 'Gateway to Jihad' is along an open stretch of rugged Turkish border
- Estimated 20 foreign recruits use it to cross into Syria and Iraq every day
- There, border guards turn a blind eye for as little as 10 US dollars
- Number of UK recruits has increased since creation of the 'Jihad Express'
- Up to 1,000 Britons and UK residents have now joined the extremists
- And up to 250 fighters are thought to have crossed on their return to the UK
It is known simply as the ‘Gateway to Jihad’.
This
is the wide open stretch of rugged Turkish border where an average of
seven Britons a week are crossing over to Syria and Iraq.
It
is the same route used by the Cardiff trio who appeared on a jihad
recruitment video, a one-time rapper, a computer hacker and one-time
privately educated college boy – all of whom are now at the centre of
British investigations as they boast on Twitter of their exploits.
As
the Mail witnessed, it is an alarmingly easy route to terror where
border guards can turn a blind eye for as little as ten US dollars and
an estimated 20 foreign recruits are travelling each day.
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The wide open stretch of rugged Turkish border
where an average of seven Britons a week are crossing over to Syria and
Iraq. The route is now dubbed the 'Jihad Express' or 'Gateway to Jihad'
Smugglers and jihadists are able to breach the
border seemingly at will with border guards turning a blind eye for 10
US dollars. An estimated 20 foreign recruits are travelling each day
One shopkeeper in Reyhanli, Turkey, said one
bearded man walked in waving $50,000 (£30,000) in bundles of cash and
bought a thousand 'magazine vests' for carrying spare AK47 rifle
ammunition clips
Up
to 1,000 Britons and UK residents have now joined the extremists
spreading terror across Syria and Iraq – more than double as many as the
Government admits, according to security sources.
Disturbingly,
intelligence agencies believe that the number of UK recruits travelling
through this alarmingly open ‘gateway’ to IS strongholds of northern
Syria is increasing since the self-proclaimed creation of a caliphate
stretching from Syria to Iraq.
It
is no coincidence that virtually all the young radicalised Britons have
joined up by crossing this porous, poorly policed Turkish border of
mountain passes and plains without confronting security.
The route is now dubbed the ‘Jihad Express’ or ‘Gateway to Jihad’.
And
crucially, it is from this border that up to 250 battle-hardened
fighters are thought to have crossed on their return to the UK, posing a
huge threat to those in the UK and a massive headache for the security
services and police.
The
all-too-easy journey taken by home-grown fanatics from the UK to the
increasingly barbaric civil war begins with them arriving in Turkey
disguised often as British tourists enjoying a holiday.
The frontier town Reyhanli, a bombed-out staging
post for hundreds of fighters, where shop owner Abu Saleh said European
jihadis buy hunting knives, sniper rifle sights, binoculars and desert
camouflage fatigues before their journey across the border
An infrequent and ineffectual Turkish Army
patrol along the porous border between Turkey and Syria near the border
town of Reyhanli, one of the places British Jihadis cross with their
Brothers-in-Arms to fight for ISIS
The well used track in the foreground leads to a
river crossing and Syria beyond. At sunset, jihadis slip into Syria
along the dusty trail, without ever encountering a border official
Like
many of their fellow fighters, the three Cardiff school friends –
gap-year student Nasser Muthana, 20, his brother Aseel, 17, and their
friend Reyaad Khan, 20 – are said to have jetted-in on a tourist fight
to Antalya, in southern Turkey, after paying for a one-week stay at a
five-star spa resort.
They
apparently vanished at 7am the day after checking in. An inspection of
their room revealed two abandoned suitcases and a discarded beard
trimmer.
A
taxi driver said they had asked the fare to Konya in eastern Turkey,
then taken a bus instead. A hotel source said MI6 agents came to take
their abandoned belongings.
Others simply use gleaming new Hatay airport, built just ten miles from the Syrian border.
he masked man who killed American journalist James Foley in a brutal propaganda video spoke with a British accent
Once in eastern Turkey, British jihadis hook up with IS handlers and embark on spending sprees in local army equipment shops.
In
frontier town Reyhanli, a bombed-out staging post for hundreds of
fighters, shop owner Abu Saleh said European jihadis buy hunting knives,
sniper rifle sights, binoculars and desert camouflage fatigues.
He
said one bearded man walked in waving $50,000 (£30,000) in bundles of
cash and bought a thousand ‘magazine vests’ for carrying spare AK47
rifle ammunition clips.
At
the nearby Miray Hotel, a busload of 30 Britons recently stayed on
their way to Syria, the manager said. In another town on the tinderbox
frontier, Kilis, a smuggler called Ibrahim said he drove five Britons
dressed in Afghan garb over the line by simply bribing a border guard
with ‘less than ten dollars’.
The
Mail has witnessed just how easy the crossing is. On a dry, dusty track
that is one of the ancient smuggling routes criss-crossing over the
hills to Syria, there is nothing but scraps of broken barbed wire
marking the border.
The
path leads down to the Orontes river, which meanders through the valley
of olive plantations, and on the other side is Syria.
A
Turkish army truck full of soldiers drove by. They barely glanced at a
gaggle of smugglers from local villages who were busy carting oil drums
and boxes of food and medicine down to the riverbank, to be pulled
across on makeshift rafts.
At
sunset, jihadis slip into Syria the same way, without ever encountering
a border official. Similar scenes unfold at hundreds of unguarded
points along a border that stretches 560 mountainous miles.
The Cardiff trio who appeared on a jihad
recruitment video - Reyaad Khan, left, Abu Muthana Al Yemeni, centre and
Abu Bara' Al Hindi, right - all used the 'Gateway to Jihad'
Abu Abdullah al-Britani (left) and Abu Hussain
al-Britani are just two of the British nationals understood to be
fighting in Syria. Up to 1,000 British residents and nationals have now
joined the extremists
Former aspiring rapper Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary
from London is among those thought to be fighting in Syria. Up to 250
fighters are thought to have used the 'Jihad Express' on their return
route to Britain
‘When
they cross over, they kneel and cry, they weep,’ said one smuggler.
‘They believe this land, Syria, is where God’s judgment will come to
pass.’
Among
those who have made it across is apparently a ‘blond-haired, blue-eyed,
British heart surgeon’ running an IS field hospital and going by the
nom de guerre ‘Abu Osama al-Brittani’.
Ahmed
Al-Kateed, who fled the civil war to live in Turkey, said: ‘I went back
to Syria because an Italian mother paid me to retrieve her dead son’s
body. Near Aleppo, I met six British fighters and one of them was this
white British doctor.’
He said the ‘surgeon’ told him he had abandoned a £120,000-a-year job in the NHS and bought himself a top-of-the-range AK47.
Keeping
tabs on the fanatics is an uphill struggle for intelligence services.
Such is IS’s network of contacts and use of social media that recruits
are told how to leave Britain – always travelling to Turkey via other
countries to avoid suspicion at UK borders and using a variety of
methods of travel – who to contact in Turkey and which hotels and safe
houses to use.
The Kent Hotel in the Turkish border town of
Reyhanli, one of the places British Jihadis stay with their
Brothers-in-Arms, before being taken into neighbouring Syria to fight
One of the Turkish regional airports, this one
at Gaziantep, one of the places British Jihadis are welcomed before
crossing the border into Syria and beyond
The bus station in the Turkish border town of
Kilis, one of the places British Jihadis are welcomed - they often
travel through other countries before arriving in Turkey to throw
security forces off their trail
Once
in accommodation they make contact with a telephone number or email
address and, usually, within 48 hours they are picked up and taken
across the border to IS training camps.
In Hatay province, which borders Syria, governor Celalettin Lekesiz dismisses all talk of foreign fighters as ‘urban legends’.
But
a leaked secret memo he wrote to his superiors, seen by the Mail,
reveals the embarrassing truth that hundreds of fighters have been
thumbing their noses at his border guards.
His
memo speaks in tones of panic, and says that, on March 15 this year for
example, 150 armed men sneaked across the border, staying en-route at
the Kent Hotel in Reyhanli.
A people smuggler who claims to have taken
British Jihadis across the border from Kilis in Turkey into Syria to
fight speaks to reporter Sam Greenhill
Reporter Sam Greenhill, pictured left near the
lawless Turkish border, discovered that the Islamic State used meeting
points like the one pictured right to ensure recruits were swiftly taken
across the border to Syria
The Turkish border town of Reyhanli, where
recruits are placed in in accommodation, where IS fighters make contact
with a telephone number or email address
Unofficial
operations are on-going to track the militants in the border area, but
Turkey has been reluctant to stop anyone from crossing.
For
months they have allowed weapons and supplies destined for recognised
Syrian opposition groups to cross and European governments have been
frustrated that little appears to have been done to stop the jihadis.
A
large force of jihadis is reported to be moving towards the border.
Their goal is to provide a guaranteed gateway through the 130-mile
frontier. If that happens, it will make the ‘Jihad Express’ even
simpler.
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