UK govt 'was warned about danger of British extremists returning home'

Experienced fighters who volunteered to battle against dictators say they have been warning the British government about the dangers that young men radicalised in combat posed to national security.

Housam Najjair, originally from Dublin, now lives in Libya.

He fought against Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and went on to serve in rebel ranks in the early days of the civil war and uprising against Syrian President Bashar al Assad.

As fighting raged on the streets of Tripoli, Mr Najjair said: "I think my warnings began ever since 2012 when I went to Syria. This was before the introduction of IS. It wasn't known at the time but I always said that I could see these groups infiltrate these porous borders.

"And the fact that western powers weren't intervening in Syria to help the more moderate element and also to protect their borders from these groups meant there was always going to be some kind of a backlash."

Rival factions failed to agree power-sharing after the end of the Gaddafi regime.

Instead the country has three governments all claiming legitimacy and several layers of continued civil war which has left the oil-rich nation in tatters. Libya is a failed nation on the doorstep of Europe.

In this environment and during the early campaign against Gaddafi, young men volunteering would find themselves plunged into an environment they were ill-prepared to cope with.

This, Mr Najjair insists, made them vulnerable to indoctrination.

He said: "You know somebody could come into these countries and have all the best intentions in the world, and if they're weak in any way or they're prone or gullible, it's easy for these extremist organisations to effectively take them on board and to get them to sign up with them.

"Basically you have to understand for a fighter who goes to these countries, especially if they're young and gullible, they're catapulted into a situation like a horror movie and it's like an apocalyptic movie.

"They have no weapons and suddenly these guys come along from these groups and are able to offer them weapons.

"If that person is not strong enough in his own faith or his own character, he will easily be led on to sign up for these groups."

When he, like many others, continued a fight for democracy and the dreams of the Arab Spring in Syria, he began to see extremist groups take over and hijack a revolution. As a result, he left Syria and returned to Europe.

He was interviewed by security services when he came back and was happy to co-operate. But he believes that the UK and other countries in Europe did not understand the danger that young men, who had been exposed to war, could pose on their return home.

Akram Ramadan lived above the flat occupied by the older brother of Manchester bomber Salman Abedi, Ismail, who was arrested last week.

He has volunteered to fight in Libya and stayed on for three more years, returning in 2014 to his hometown, Manchester.

He said: "There are very few who get totally and violently radicalised. I have been interviewed by the police on my return. It was pretty friendly, on a park bench. But there should be more screening, and profiling of people who might pose a threat."

He added: "They are very vulnerable young men when they volunteer and seldom understand the religious context what they're being told by extremists who get hold of them and turn them to the wrong side.

"They're also at risk because in this country they don't feel they belong and people know that they've been fighters so treat them like terrorists and then in places like Libya they're seen as half-castes as almost white and British and they don't belong there either.

"I have been saying for some time that these people when they come back need counselling, they need psychiatric help to return to normal society or some of them could become dangerous."