Video posted online of British suicide bomber Abdul Majeed Majid

14th February 2014

A video has been posted online showing British man Abdul Waheed Majid, who is thought to have carried out a suicide bombing in Syria.

The 41-year-old, from Crawley, is believed to have bombed a jail in Aleppo on 6 February, enabling 300 inmates to escape. The footage shows Majid next to a large armoured truck bomb that was driven into the walls of the prison. His family said they believed he was in Syria for humanitarian purposes. Anti-terror police searched Majid’s house on Wednesday.

The video, apparently filmed in a wood in northern Syria last week, clearly shows him surrounded by armed fighters and next to the armoured truck bomb later rammed into the walls of Aleppo prison and detonated.

The suicide bombing has alarmed counter terrorism officials here in Britain as they say they fear that other jihadists who go out to Syria may come into contact with hardcore al-Qaeda operatives who may urge them to turn their attentions away from the Syrian regime and instead attack targets in the West.

Meanwhile, human rights group CAGE says it is concerned by the “disproportionate response of UK police” following the alleged death of Abdul Waheed Majid in Syria.

CAGE said: “Despite the lack of verification and the fact that a family and community are mourning the loss, the response of the local police has been to swamp the locality and carry out dawn raids on various families. A further three raids this morning indicates that the police are attempting to use the incident as an opportunity to intimidate a besieged community, hunt for suspects when there has been no crime and tarnish the reputation of local activists.”CAGE added that it calls on the police to withdraw from this “fishing expedition” and to focus on assistance to the family, and to carry out any investigation in a calm and respectful manner.