Islamic State fighters from London were today warned they will be hunted down and killed by Coalition forces in Iraq and Syria.
Major General Rupert Jones, Deputy Commander of the Combined Joint Task Force, stressed that the flow of foreign recruits to IS, also known as Daesh, was now “absolutely down to a trickle”.
But on a visit to London, he warned fanatics who have joined IS or are considering doing so: “We as an international Coalition have always been very clear.
“If you are going to take up arms on behalf of Daesh and you are going to kill innocent civilians, we will find you and we will kill you.
“That does not matter whether they are from London, or Paris, or from Baghdad.
“If you want to take up arms, this does not end well for you.”
Several Britons, including Londoner Mohammed Emwazi, also known as “Jihadi John” have been killed in airstrikes on Raqqa in Syria and other locations.
Major General Jones stressed that IS was losing on the battlefield and with its propaganda campaign which was no longer luring so many fighters to its ranks.
“We believe the number of fighters being radicalised and travelling to join Daesh has dropped by 75 per cent and up to as much as 90 per cent,” he said.
IS activity on Twitter had fallen by 45 per cent since 2014, with 360,000 accounts suspended, he added, with the average lifespan of a “terrorist” social media account being less than two days.
He also warned that as IS loses territory in Iraq and Syria as it is squeezed by Operation Inherent Resolve, it is increasingly seeking to launch attacks in the West and other nations.
“They have now refocused their attention on radicalising people outside of Iraq and Syria to launch attacks locally,” he explained.
As Iraqi forces make advances to recapture Mosul in northern Iraq, IS was increasingly using drones to drop improvised explosive devices.
But Major General Jones stressed that these aerial attacks were often indiscriminate and just as likely to hit civilians as Iraqi troops and were not a “game-changer” on the battlefield.
Suggesting that the drone attacks were a sign of desperation, he added: “We are killing Daesh at a rate that they simply can’t sustain.”
The Coalition estimates that 45,000 IS fighters were killed in airstrikes by August 2016, including, it claims, nearly all of IS leader Abu Bakr Baghdadi’s deputies.
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