Fugitive British jihadist photographed with AK47 beside downed Syrian fighter jet
A picture of a fugitive jihadist who skipped bail in Britain and fled to Syria amid a string of police blunders has surfaced on Twitter. The father-of-four is seen brandishing an AK47 beside a downed fighter jet in Raqqa, northern Syria.
In the image, 31-year-old Siddartha Dhar appears alongside Abu Abdullah Britani, another British citizen. The men stand beside a battered, rusted fighter jet holding deadly weaponry.
Dhar vanished within 24 hours of being released on bail by Scotland Yard detectives last November. The Met had been assigned to investigate him in connection with terror charges.
Shortly after his escape, Dhar boasted in a series of online posts how he had successfully evaded British intelligence agencies and traveled to war-torn Syria.
In an image that appeared on his Twitter account at the time, Dhar held a rifle in one hand and a tiny infant in the other. The caption accompanying the picture claimed the baby was the fugitive’s “newborn son.”
Dhar, who operated online under the alias Abu Abdullah Britani, had his Twitter account subsequently suspended.
The latest image of the fugitive holding an AK47 appeared on the Twitter account of his fellow jihadist Abu Abdullah Britani. It was the second image of the terror suspect to surface online since he began fighting for Islamic State in Syria.
Dhar and Abdullah Britani, also thought to be fighting for Islamic State, appear in the picture alongside the chilling caption: “Maybe next time myself n Abu Rumaysah r 2gether it will be head of nusayri uk usa french jordan Saudi pilots head [sic].”
Abdullah Britani adds in a later tweet: “Oh pilots of the coalition! We will down you, we will hunt you down & we will kill you.”
Dhar’s departure to Syria last November unleashed a torrent of criticism against Scotland Yard.
Critics were amazed that a British citizen, suspected of encouraging terrorism and supposedly under restrictive bail conditions, had absconded from the country undetected by police.
READ MORE:Police blunder: Terror suspect on bail flees to Syria with family
Weeks before his arrest, Dhar had publicly declared in an interview he was prepared to renounce his UK citizenship if it paved the way for him to travel to Syria.
Dhar was a core member of the banned al-Muhajiroun group, which strove to recruit troubled or vulnerable young Britons to Islam. The father-of-four is thought to have crossed paths with and potentially mentored Michael Adebolajo, one of Fusilier Lee Rigby’s murderers.
By imposing stringent bail terms on Dhar, Met officers intended to stop him from associating with other al-Muhajiroun affiliates. The bail restrictions were also enforced to prevent him from traveling abroad or acting as a conduit for extremist ideologies.
