Former British Daesh Militant Warns: US Bombing to Drive more Terrorists

Local Editor

A former militant from the UK unveiled to The Independent some aspects of the group's brutality, stressing that the US-led bombing will drive more terrorists to launch terror attacks in the West.

Harry Sarfo joined Daesh in Syria and appeared in one of its notorious propaganda execution videos before becoming disillusioned with the scale of brutality he saw and fleeing the group.

In an exchange with The Independent from the German prison where he awaiting trial on terror charges, Sarfo claimed that the use of air strikes by the US-led coalition is inspiring more followers to commit atrocities in places including mainland Europe.

"The bombing campaign gives them more recruits, more men and children who will be willing to give their lies because they've lost their families in the bombing," he said.

"For every bomb, there will be someone to bring terror to the West.

"They know the West is scared to put boots on the ground. Even if that happens one day, they've got plenty of men waiting for Western troops to arrive. For them the promise of paradise is all they want."

Sarfo was born in Germany and moved to London as a teenager, where he went to college. He was radicalized back in Germany before joining the "caliphate" in April 2015.

He was arrested upon his return to Europe three months later and has now been indicted on charges including being a member of a foreign terrorist group and violating German weapons laws.

German prosecutors say that Sarfo, who they name as Harry S, "declared himself prepared to fight in a special unit of the organization" and was given specialist combat training handling automatic weapons.

After leaving the unit in June 2015, he appeared carrying Daesh black flag in a video that called for Germans to join the terrorist group in Syria.

In an interview conducted over email via his lawyer, Sarfo says the bloody consequences of Daesh extreme interpretation of Sharia law drove him to turn his back on the terror group.

"I was training in the Daesh's special force in Syria and around Raqqa, where members of the group are armed with weapons such as Kalashnikovs, M-14s and M-16s," he said.

"I witnessed stonings, beheadings, shootings, hands chopped off and many other things. I've seen child soldiers - 13-year-old boys with explosive belts and Kalashnikovs. Some boys even driving cars and involved in executions.

"My worst memory is of the execution of six men shot in the head by Kalashnikovs. The chopping off of a man's hand and making him hold it with the other hand.
"The Islamic State is not just un-Islamic, it is inhuman. A blood-related brother killed his own brother on suspicion of being a spy. They gave him the order to kill him. It is friends killing friends.

After an upbringing marked by poverty, displacement and crime that eventually landed him in prison with a known "jihadist" recruiter, Sarfo recalled the image of "people from all parts of the world reunited under one flag" as the key attraction to the group.

During his time in Raqqa, Sarfo described overhearing many discussions about attacks in Europe, saying he and other foreign militants were asked whether they would be prepared to carry out atrocities in the UK, Germany and "Dar al-Kufr" - the land of disbelievers.

He insists he declined but it appears that many of his fellow European fighters had no such reservations.

Just months after he was questioned by recruiters in April, a group of militants exploited the refugee crisis to re-enter Europe and prepare for the massacres that would kill 130 people in Paris.

Ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud told a friend he was among 90 terrorists who returned to the continent and gone to ground in preparation for further atrocities, possibly including the bombings that left more than 30 people dead in Belgium last month.

Europol estimates that up to to 5,000 terrorists could be in Europe after returning from terrorist training camps and the agency's director has warned the continent faces its "biggest terror threat in more than a decade".

Source: The Independent, Edited by website team