More sad news.
Fourth jihadist from Portsmouth killed in Syria
Muhammad Mehdi Hassan, 19, is fourth member of group of six ‘Pompey lads’ who travelled to fight for Isis
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Mark Townsend and Shiv Malik
theguardian.com, Saturday 25 October 2014 14.59 BST
Muhammad Mehdi Hassan is believed to have been killed in Kobani. Photograph: Facebook
Another British jihadist from Portsmouth has been reportedly killed on the frontline in Syria, the fourth to die from a group of six men who travelled from Hampshire last year to fight for the Islamic State (Isis).
Muhammad Mehdi Hassan, 19, is understood to have died in fighting during the ongoing Isis offensive to capture the Syrian border city of Kobani. He was one of a group of six men from Portsmouth who went to Syria in 2013.
Hassan’s Twitter account has been quiet since 17 October. The last entry talks about the frequency of US air strikes which have been targeting Isis positions near Kobani for weeks.
The chairman of the Portsmouth Jami Mosque, Abdul Jalil, told the BBC: “It has been confirmed with the family that he has died. Right now they are very upset. I am saddened and again shocked for the community about this news.”
On Tuesday, it was confirmed that another of the so-called “Pompey lads” Manunur Roshid, 24, was also killed in fighting on the Syrian frontline with reports suggesting he also died in the battle to seize Kobani, which borders Turkey. Reports of their death follows that of two other Portsmouth men, Ifthekar Jaman, 23, last December and Muhammad Hamidur Rahman, 25 in August.
Hassan’s death leaves Assad Uzzaman, 25, fighting in Syria with Isis while the other member of the group, Mashadur Choudhury, 31, returned to the UK and is currently in jail.
The group are among an estimated 500 Britons who have travelled to fight in Iraq and Syria. Overall, 24 Britons are believed to have died after travelling to fight in the conflict, according to the King’s College London centre for the study of radicalisation, meaning that British jihadis are being killed in the conflict in Syria and Iraq at a rate of one every three weeks, according to the most thorough documentation of the death toll to date.
Hasan was part of a group of five calling themselves the “Britani Brigade Bangladeshi Bad Boys”. The fanatics, all from Portsmouth, had been seduced by glamorous tales of martyrdom to join Islamic State – formerly Isis – establishing a Muslim caliphate in the Middle East.
Shiraz Maher, from King’s ICSR, said: “Now, of the six men who went from Porstmouth to fight jihad in Syria, four have now died and one is in prison.
“We know that Hassan was fighting for the battle of Kobani, likely alongside Manunur Rohsid who was reported killed a few days ago.”
Maher said that this death showed that Brits were being killed in all regions of the sprawling and bloody conflict from Mediterranean coastal provinces in Syria, to the west of Iraq to towns on the Turkish border. “Brits are not there to take a back seat in this conflict, they are full participants in this war,” he said.
