British nationals should be killed in Syria, says UK minister

The only way to deal with the threat of British nationals fighting with Deash in Syria is to kill them, says a British Minister, the Guardian reported.

Asked about his comments on “Pienaar’s Politics” show on Radio 5 Live, Minister of State for International Development Rory Stewart said:

The only way of dealing with them will be, in almost every case, to kill them.

“These are people who are executing people in the back of their heads, who have held women and children hostage, who are torturing and murdering, trying by violence to impose their will. Our response has to be, when somebody does that, I’m afraid, to deal with that,” Stewart continued.

Hundreds of British nationals have joined armed groups in Syria to fight President Bashar Al-Assad’s regime since 2011.

In 2015, former British Prime Minister David Cameron announced the execution of two British nationals, Reyaad Khan and Ruhul Amin, by drone strike. The killing received heavy criticism over the legality of the strike. This was the first time a British national was killed by a Royal Air Force drone.

Read: UK could join US action in event of new Syria chemical attack

Drones are unmanned weapons systems which carry missiles, used for targeted assassinations. They have the ability to loiter for days on end in the sky undetected before executing a strike.

The human rights organisation working on security and justice, Rights Watch UK, requested the disclosure of the legal basis for targeting British citizens abroad. The UK Government refused to disclose the legal advice they had sought.

#WarInSyria

Syria has been locked in a vicious war since early 2011, when President Bashar A-Assad’s regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests. Since then, approximately 4000,000 people have been killed and in excess of ten million displaced according to the UN.

Armed groups in Syria are operating to topple President Bashar Al-Assad. As of last week, Daesh has lost control of Raqqa, the capital of its self-proclaimed Caliphate, as a result of US-backed forces pounding the area with airstrikes.

Read More: British mother and son killed in US drone strike