UK Government officials were last night investigating claims that a British man who fled to join the world’s most feared terrorist group has been killed in Iraq.
A militant using the fighter name “Abul Baraa” is understood to have been killed by an Iraqi Army SWAT team yesterday.
Last night, the Foreign Office was urgently trying to verify the reports, which also claimed the fighter trained in Syria two months ago.
British Jihadist Abdul Rakib Amin – who grew up in Aberdeen – is known to fight under a similar name and also travelled to Syria.
A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said she could not confirm whether the man believed to have died was the former St Machar Academy pupil.
“We are aware of reports of the death of a British national in Iraq. We stand ready to talk to any family that may be affected,” she said.
“The UK is deeply concerned by the growth of terrorism in Iraq and Syria which threatens the people in the entire region.”
She added that anyone travelling to these areas was exposing themselves to “serious risk”.
Amin recently appeared in a chilling terrorist recruitment video for the al Qaida-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) group
His exposure as an extremist rallying Moslems to wage jihad while holding an assault rifle has shocked those who knew him when he was growing up in the north-east.
Isis now controls much of Iraq and it is believed the recruiting video was shot in Syria.
Islamist militants fighting for Isis last night paid tribute to the dead fighter, who they claim was born in Britain
Social media accounts understood to belong to Isis members said the man was killed fighting government forces near Ramadi – a town 75 miles west of Baghdad.
The account goes on to describe the militant as “very humble and pious” and says he had come to the Middle East against the advice of “Jihadi peers” in the UK.
Isis has proclaimed its leader, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, as caliph of its new state and demanded that Moslems everywhere pledge allegiance to him.
The Sunni extremist group has carved out a large chunk of territory that effectively erases the border between Iraq and Syria and laid the foundations of its proto-state. It has battled Syrian rebels, Kurdish militias and the Syrian and Iraqi armies.
While much of the fighting has taken place in the north, the Foreign Office has warned workers to be on alert in the southern province of Basra – home to Iraq’s oil and its gateway for exports.
The US embassy has also issued a warning to its citizens.