People have been flocking to join ISIS. A file picture of an ISIS training camp
People have been flocking to join ISIS. A file picture of an ISIS training camp/Reuters Reuters

Many youngsters who joined Islamic State in a rush of passion are unable to return despite their frustration with the rabid militant cause. They face death if they choose to desert them prematurely.

It has been revealed that the ISIS has issued death threats against a number of British-born fighters who joined their ranks in Syria and Iraq in the fight to "establish the Islamic Caliphate" in the region. According to a report in the U. K-based Observer, many of the Brits in ISIS are disillusioned and rue their adventure of leaving the relative comfort of their families in Britain and are desperate to return home, reports Guardian. The report said, "Britons wanting to leave have been threatened with death, either directly or indirectly."

A report by Inquistr quoted that Moazzam Begg, a former Guantánamo Bay detainee, saying that there are at least 30 British militants in the ranks of ISIS who want to return home as soon as possible. But all of them are currently held in Syria and Iraq against their will. The number of such British militants are growing. He explained the death threats as a fallout of the breach of oath by young militants and trying to run away without completing the fight to establish the Caliphate.

Brits Killed

Also more deaths of Brit fighters are being reported. Last week, a young British Muslim, Muhammad Mehdi Hassan, 19, was killed in the battle at the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani, where a battle is going on. Hassan was the fourth Briton to die in Syria after the fighting anti ISS campaign started. The young militant belonged to a group of six men known as the "Pompey lads" who came to Syria from Britain to fight for the ISIS.

Amnesty Urged

Begg, himself a Brit and hailing from Birmingham, urged the British government to be more considerate and give amnesty to the returnees from Syria and Iraq. He commended the rehabilitation programmes in Denmark, assisting the deviant to get their lives back on track than subjecting them to prosecution methods.

Begg said he was approached by many groups, to convince the British government to show leniency to the disillusioned fighters upon their return. But the British government has already declared that British jihadis, seeking to return, will be tried for treason, added the report in the Guardian.

Begg described the situation of many Brits as "stuck between a rock and a hard place" even as a large number of people are looking to a safe return. According to London's International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR,) about 500 Brits have travelled to Iraq and Syria. There are confirmed reports that 24 of them have been killed. Begg, who has extensive contacts among the militants, had offered to help in securing the release of British hostage Alan Henning from the custody of ISIS. But the British government rejected it and the Brit was killed later.