Portsmouth named as terrorism '˜recruitment hub' in US report

Portsmouth has been named as a '˜recruitment hub' for terrorists in a new US military report.
Credit: ReutersCredit: Reuters
Credit: Reuters

The study by the Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) found ISIS and other extremist groups network in areas with large immigrant communities ‘where they identify high numbers of potential recruits who are potentially under social-economic stres.’

For their research the CTC studied more than 850 foreign fighters and looked for their city of residence to find which areas are ‘hubs of recruitment’ for terrorism organisations.

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Portsmouth and London are the only UK cities named in the report.

Out of the dataset of jihadis who travelled to Syria and Iraq between 2011 and 2015, London had 38 recruits and Portsmouth had eight.

The report also suggested that three quarters of fighters come from cities where there is already at least one militant - often as part odf the same friendship group.

Fighters to have travelled from Portsmouth include six young men who called themselves the ‘al0-Britaini Brigade Bangladeshi Bad Boys’.

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From the group, Ifthekar Jaman, Assad Uzzaman, Mehdi Hassan, Hamidur Rahman and Mamunur Roshid were killed in Syria while Mashudur Choudhury - the only survivor - has been jailed for terror offences after returning to the UK.