Brit commander warns fighters joining IS: 'We will find you and we will kill you'

Britain’s top commander in Iraq and Syria has issued a warning to anyone joining Islamic State (IS) in the region: “We will target you, we will find you, and we will kill you.”

Referring specifically to people who travel from other areas to join IS, Major General Rupert Jones said that where people came from would not matter, they would all be treated the same.

Speaking to the Press Association, he said: “If you come to Iraq, if you come to Syria, and you bear arms against the people of Iraq and the people of Syria, against the sovereign forces of this country in Iraq, we will target you.

“It does not matter where you are from, we will target you under the laws of armed conflict, and it does not matter whether you come from London or Rome, we will target you, we will find you, and we will kill you.”

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He also shared similar sentiments about the leader of the “evil organisation”, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, adding, “If we knew where he was hiding, his life would not last long.

“The point that is important is that the vast majority of his loyal lieutenants are already in graves.

“He and what is left of his leadership structure is in hiding. They are skulking and they are hiding for their lives.

“I am reasonably confident that he will be found, and when he is found, it will not be a pretty end for him.”

He added that by hiding, al-Baghdadi was deserting IS fighters in Mosul and across the region.

With a population of 1.5 million, Mosul has been an IS stronghold for two-and-a-half years – but coalition forces are edging closer to recapturing it and General Jones thinks this will be the beginning of the end for IS, also known as Daesh.

Gen Jones said, “Once Mosul has been liberated, there is an inevitability to Daesh’s defeat in Iraq. They will have lost their so-called capital in Iraq.

“Mosul is going to be liberated. It is completely isolated, but exactly when PM Haider al-Abadi will be in a position to declare it fully liberated, we will see.”

“I am very confident that Daesh will be defeated,” Gen Jones reiterated. “Will there be some kind of follow on capability? Yeah, sure. Daesh have demonstrated time and again their ability to adapt and to learn.

“Daesh fighters are highly determined fighters and we should assume that they will adjust and that they will try and continue to spread their message of hatred within Iraq and elsewhere.”

British troops are not involved in a combat mission but are helping to train Iraqi security forces.

Gen Jones said: “What we are here to do is to help our partners, Iraqi security forces and then we have vetted opposition partners in Syria, to defeat an evil enemy who has no humanity.

“And we see that day in day out, in all of the towns and cities that Daesh control.

“Seeing what Daesh do to innocent people, that has no humanity. What we are here to do is to clear the enemy so that people can live their lives again.”