Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Women Urged To Stop Britons Fighting In Syria

A sharp rise in the number of people being arrested for travelling to Syria has prompted a new campaign.
Female loved ones of those thinking of heading to the war-torn state are being encourage to stop the men leaving.
Scotland Yard revealed that 40 Syria-related arrests were made in the first three months of this year, up from 25 in the whole of 2013.
The campaign comes after several Britons are thought to have died in Syria in the last few months.
Bashar al Assad's government is fighting a civil war against a group of Western-backed rebels and also an al Qaeda-linked extremist group.
Around 400 Britons are believed to have gone to Syria over the last two years to train in camps or take part in the fighting, with an estimated 20 having died in total.
Senior National Co-ordinator Counter-Terrorism Helen Ball, said: "We are increasingly concerned about the numbers of young people who have or are intending to travel to Syria to join the conflict.
"We want to ensure that people, particularly women, who are concerned about their loved ones are given enough information about what they can do to prevent this from happening.
"We want to increase their confidence in the police and partners to encourage them to come forward so that we can intervene and help.
"This is not about criminalising people it is about preventing tragedies."
Exclusive: British jihadists fighting in Syria
Around 400 Britons are thought to have travelled to Syria to train or fight
Other Britons, including orthopaedic surgeon Dr Abbas Khan, have died after going to help with humanitarian relief.

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