‘More and more Britons travelling to Somalia for jihad’

[Naveed Yaseen]

LONDON: British intelligence chiefs have warned Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government that Somalia is the next challenge in efforts to stem religious extremism, a report said on Sunday.

Officials warn that the number of young Britons travelling to Somalia to fight in the war-torn country or take part in “terror training camps” was rising, the Independent reported on Sunday. In particular, they were concerned about the number of people, with no direct family connection to Somalia, who were travelling there. The number travelling there every year has more than quadrupled to at least 100 since 2004, according to the newspaper. “I have seen figures not in the public domain that suggest there is an increasing flow of young Britons into Somalia,” said Conservative MP Patrick Mercer, chairman of the counter-terrorism subcommittee. “There is now a mixture of British people, from numerous backgrounds, who are heading out there and that is causing great concern,” he said. The Shebab, an Al Qaeda inspired movement, is spearheading a three-month-old offensive to topple Somalia’s President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and has imposed strict sharia law in areas under its control. The US has expressed the fear that Shebab would turn Somalia into an extremist haven. afp

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