British Jihadis Jailed For Fighting In Syria

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Two British jihadis, who spent eight months fighting alongside an al Qaeda-linked terror group in Syria, have been jailed for 12 years and eight months each.

Mohammed Nahin Ahmed and Yusuf Zubair Sarwar, both 22, from Handsworth in Birmingham, travelled to the war-torn country in May 2013 after contacting Islamist extremists.

Sentencing the pair, Judge Michael Topolski described them as fundamentalists who are committed to violent extremism. He said: "You were intending to be martyred on the battlefield."

The childhood friends faked documents to convince their families they were going to Turkey but had actually arranged a one-way trip to Syria instead.

Sarwar's family reported him missing to police after finding a handwritten letter from him to his mother detailing his intention to "do jihad".

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Gallery: Terror Pair Left Trail On Computer

Two British men who travelled to Syria to fight alongside rebels have pleaded guilty to terrorism offences. All photos from West Midlands Police.

Mohammed Nahin Ahmed and Yusuf Zubair Sarwar spent eight months in Syria last year after contacting Islamist extremists from the UK. This email was sent to Ahmed by a Danish extremist.

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Nahin and Sarwar leaving the Heathrow Premier Inn for the airport terminal.

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It also contained money to pay off his debts and instructions to end his mobile phone contract.

The men returned to the UK in January after their families put pressure on them to come home.

But officers from West Midlands Police counter-terrorism unit were waiting to arrest them when they landed at Heathrow.

Ahmed and Sarwar tried to convince officers that they had gone to Syria for humanitarian reasons but thousands of war-related images were found on their digital camera.

A search of their homes also found martyr literature and images of Islamic State flags.

Email and social media conversations with Islamic extremists were discovered on their computers.

They were due to face trial at the start of July but it was abandoned when they each admitted one count of engaging in conduct in preparation of an act of terrorism.

Prosecutor Brian Altman told the court: "Without the mother's actions, the police would not have been in a position to be waiting for the men on their return."

Ahmed and Sarwar have been held in Belmarsh Prison in south-east London while awaiting sentence.

For a time former Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg was a fellow inmate.

He told Sky News the pair were "young" and "bewildered" and that they felt it was their "moral duty" to go to Syria.

:: A father-of-two from Portsmouth has been jailed for four years for travelling to Syria to take part in a terrorist training camp.

Mashudur Choudhury, 31, was convicted in May of engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts. He was arrested at Gatwick Airport in October 2013.

The court heard details of text messages between Choudhury and his wife. In one of them she wrote: "Go die in battlefield. Go die, I really mean it just go. I'll be relieved. At last. At last."

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