UK government’s request, meaning nationals will face travel bans and asset freezes, comes after fears about Isis attracting more young people

Four British citizens fighting with Islamic State militants in Syria are to be subject to UN sanctions in the first such move in a decade, Downing Street has said.

The UK government took the drastic step of asking for some of its own nationals to face UN travel bans and asset freezes, amid increasing alarm about the hundreds of Britons being tempted to travel to Iraq and Syria.

The four are Sally-Anne Jones, a 46-year-old Muslim convert from Chatham, Kent who married an Isis computer hacker; Aqsa Mahmood, a 21-year-old Glaswegian jihadi bride; Nasser Muthana, a 21-year-old from Cardiff and Omar Hussain, a 28-year-old former Morrisons security guard from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. All four are thought to be based in the Isis-held city of Raqqa.

It is understood Mahmood, who went to Syria in 2013 to join the female al-Khanssaa brigade, is included on the list because she has recruited for Isis online, condoning and encouraging terror attacks in Europe.

Jones travelled to Syria in the same year with her then 21-year-old husband Junaid Hussain, who was killed in a US drone strike in August. The former punk musician is understood to be on the list because she uses her Twitter account to recruit women to join Isis, has provided practical advice on how to travel to Syria and told people to conduct attacks in Britain with homemade bombs.

Hussain, also known as Abu Sa’id al-Britani, has used social media to encourage women and children to travel to Syria. Shortly after arriving in Syria in 2014, he confirmed that he was fighting for Isis and claimed that he would only return to the UK to plant a bomb.

Muthana, who travelled to Syria in 2013, is thought to have appeared in Isis propaganda and recruitment videos including one called There is No Life Without Jihad.

Four British members of Islamic State sanctioned by the UN – profiles Read more

The last time such a request was made was when an al-Qaida operative was added in 2006. It means the named Britons fighting for Isis cannot travel through any country that is a UN member or keep their money in any UN nation, making it more effective at paralysing those on the list than national sanctions.



A No 10 spokesman said: “As well as the domestic measures we have introduced, such as the power to seize passports, these sanctions are a powerful tool – freezing an individual’s assets and imposing a global travel ban on them.

“It also sends a clear deterrent message to those thinking of going to fight for Isil. We will continue to consider whether more individuals should be subjected to the sanctions.”

The request was approved by the UN on Monday night before an anti-Isis event on Tuesday at the general assembly in New York, which will be attended by David Cameron and led by US president Barack Obama.

At the event, Cameron will propose a £10m anti-Isis propaganda unit based out of London, which will seek to highlight negative aspects of life under Isis such as the threat of rape, being sold into slavery, having to queue for bread, and low wages.

Britain has been made the lead nation for communication strategy against Isis, amid warnings from experts that the terrorist group is winning the digital war over many young hearts and minds.

A No 10 source said the decision to request UN sanctions against the British nationals, effectively naming them as the most wanted Isis recruiters, was in part intended to be a symbolic deterrent.

Downing Street said those put on the list include both men and women who are actively seeking to recruit to Isis and using social media to promote terrorist activity online, including providing guidance on how to make homemade bombs.

The individuals are deemed to be associated with “participating in the financing, planning, facilitating, preparing, or perpetrating of acts or activities by, in conjunction with, under the name of, on behalf of, or in support of”, “recruiting for” and “otherwise supporting acts or activities of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria”.

“The move underlines the government’s determination that those who go and fight for Isil and threaten Britain will face consequences for their actions,” Downing Street said.

It emerged over the summer that the UK government has a list of jihadi fighters it considered as legitimate targets for drone strikes because they posed an imminent threat to national security.

Cameron told parliament earlier this month that British fighter Reyaad Khan was killed by an RAF missile on 21 August. The subject of foreign fighters in the Middle East and north Africa is high on the agenda at the UN general assembly, with the international body’s monitoring team estimating that 25,000 people from more than 100 countries have joined Islamist extremist groups in the region.

World leaders are also involved in talks about how to stop the bloodshed in Syria, where Bashar al-Assad is fighting Isis, and various other insurgent groups.

Cameron met Iranian president Hassan Rouhani, who backs Assad, on Monday in an effort to find common ground on how to end the war.

A No 10 official said that during the 45-minute encounter, Cameron stressed Isis could not be defeated as long as Assad was in control of the government.

“Part of the thinking is that if you are going to look to have a transition to a new government in Syria, you have got to be confident you are putting in place a strong and stable and inclusive government that is better than what you have now and can genuinely be a partner in the fight against Islamic State,” the official said.

They also discussed how to work together to stop the illegal trade in oil bought from Isis but the UK said there was “clearly further to go” on all areas of discussion.

In recent months, western nations including the UK have dropped demands that Assad steps down immediately, and conceded that he could be part of a temporary transitional government.

However, Cameron said on Sunday that he still thinks Assad should be subject to international law after butchering his own people, including using chemical weapons.

Separately, Obama was due to meet Russian president Vladimir Putin, who backs Assad, like Rouhani.

Putin told the assembly it would be “an enormous mistake” to refuse to work with Assad and called for a “genuinely broad alliance against terrorism, just like the one against Hitler”. Obama said the US was “prepared to work with any nation, including Russia and Iran, to resolve the conflict” but there could not be a “return to the pre-war status quo” after the conflict.

The four britons - profiled

Sally-Anne Jones

Sally-Anne Jones travelled from Kent to Syria in 2013 to join her husband and fellow Briton Junaid Hussain. Hussain was killed in a targeted US drone attack in late August. He was understood to be plotting attacks on UK soil and attempted to recruit at least one undercover reporter to build a pressure cooker bomb. Jones was also believed to be trying to recruit extremists in the UK to the same task.



The 46-year-old former punk musician, a mother of two, left one of her sons in the UK, travelling to Islamic State-held territory with her youngest child. Jones has had more than twenty handles on Twitter and used the site to declare her hostility to the west. On 10 September she reappeared to comment on her husband’s death, writing: “My husband said he wanted me to carry on if he got shaheed [martyred] … I do not fear the Kuffar [infidels],” adding, “ENGLAND hates me – praise be to god.”



Nasser Muthana

Cardiff-born Nasser Muthana travelled to Syria in 2013 with his younger brother Aseel. The former medical student was placed on the UK treasury’s sanctions list in July 2014 after appearing in an Isis recruitment video titled There is No Life without Jihad alongside fellow Britons Ruhul Amin and Reyaad Khan. Amin and Khan were both killed in the first acknowledged UK drone strike on British citizens outside of a war zone.



Earlier this month, Muthana’s father, Ahmed, a retired electrical engineer, raised fears that both his sons could be on a British ‘kill list’. Last year he described Nasser, 21, as having “betrayed Great Britain”.

Aqsa Mahmood

The Glaswegian was just 19 when she travelled to Syria in Nov 2013, one of the first women to leave for the country. As she crossed the Turkish border, the former private school girl told her parents that she wanted to become a martyr. The UK government believes she is a a key figure in the al-Khanssaa brigade, a female outfit established by Isis in Raqqa to enforce Sharia law.



She recently celebrated terror attacks in France and Tunisia by penning a poem and has encouraged further attacks to be carried out over social media. Recently she created a packing list for women wishing to join Isis in its so-called caliphate, which included good lingerie.

Abu-Said al-Britani AKA Omar Hussain

Hussain, 27, who travelled to Syria to fight for Isis in early 2014, has been an active propagandist for Isis. He initially joined Jabhat al Nusra, al-Qaida’s branch in Syria, but later defected, like many other foreigners in the conflict, to Isis.

In August 2014, Al-Britani spoke publicly to the British media saying that he would only return to the UK in order to “plant a bomb”. He has an active blog on Tumblr and earlier this month, in a peculiar 6,000 word screed, described Arabs as “quite peculiar, annoying, and at times somewhat stressful to interact and associate with”.