A teenager from Brighton whose brother died fighting in Syria earlier this year has also been killed in the war-torn country, his father has said.
Jaffar Deghayes, 17, is believed to have died at the weekend after leaving home for Syria in a bid to help overthrow Bashar Al-Assad’s government. His brother, Abdullah, 18, died in Latakia province in April after leaving the UK in January reportedly to take up arms with Jabhat al-Nusra, Al Qaeda’s official franchise in Syria. It’s thought that Jaffer also had been involved with Jabhat al-Nusra.
Their father, Abubaker, said he was told of Jaffar’s death on Monday. He said a third son, Amer Deghayes, 20, who also travelled to Syria, relayed the news to the family in Saltdean, East Sussex.
“Somewhere near Aleppo he was with a group of five people who were trained to go in as special force fighters,” said Mr Deghayes. “They were surrounded by the Assad regime. Three of the five were killed. My son was shot with a bullet in his head. He lived for 15 minutes and then he passed away.”
Following the death of Abdullah, counter-terrorism officers raided the Deghayes family home in May and seized material after a warrant was issued under the Terrorism Act 2000.
Mr Deghayes said the authorities had stopped him from trying to go to Syria to bring his sons back by keeping his passport for six months. He said he had last spoken to Jaffar more than a month ago and in all his conversations with his sons had tried to encourage them to come home.
To the British government he said:”The strategy you are using with our sons does not work. You are criminalising them out of the fear they might become a threat to this country. Do not push them to be radicalised and used by groups like ISIS who are out for blood.
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“You should have a strategy where you teach youngsters in this country to work in relief work and how to help in a civilised manner. They should be treated like a youngster who made a mistake and not put in prison.”
Around 25 Britons are believed to have died in the conflict in Syria and Iraq, and they are being killed at a rate of more than one every three weeks, according to researchers at King’s College London.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said last week that five British “extremists” are joining ISIS every week, with more than 500 already having travelled to join the conflict.
