Brighton, England (CNN) -- A blurry Skype signal
stirs to life. From a battlefront in northwest Syria a British jihadi fighter
has a message for the mother of his childhood friend.
"I'd
like to say to her that her son was a very loved person. We called him
"Khalil" and that means friend. He was everybody's friend,"
20-year-old Amer Deghayes told CNN.
"Khalil
wrote a will and videoed a message for his mother on his mobile phone. He said
to me 'if I get killed make sure you send this to my Mum.' But the phone was
destroyed in the airstrike," he added.
"Khalil
Al-Britani" was the nom-de-guerre of Ibrahim Kamara, a 19-year-old from
Brighton, a picturesque seaside resort in southern England. He was killed in
Syria's Idlib province on September 23 as the U.S. unleashed a first wave of
missile strikes on suspected "terrorist" positions.
The U.S. and its coalition partners said they were
primarily targeting ISIS. Washington says the targets it hit in Idlib belonged
to a hardcore al Qaeda cell known as the "Khorosan Group."
Deghayes,
however, said his friend Kamara was, like him, a gunman in the al
Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front -- a rebel faction battling the Syrian regime
but also designated a "terrorist" organization by the U.S.
News
of Kamara's death was just the latest chapter in the tale of four Brighton
youngsters, who, fresh out of school, headed to war.
Amer
Deghayes, now 20, is the eldest of four Brighton youths known to have gone to
fight in Syria. He left a year ago after completing business studies at a
college in Brighton. He told his father was going to do aid work for displaced
civilians.
Via
Skype he told me a different story. He said he had been inspired by a primetime
documentary on Britain's Channel Four television about British and European
recruits taking up arms in Syria's civil war.
Deghayes
explained he thought it was his duty to do his bit in Syria -- part "help
thy neighbor," part Islamic obligation to go to the rescue of other
Muslims in need.
"The
Muslim nation is one body," he said. "If one part is in harm then all
the other parts go to rescue. It doesn't make much sense to me that people are
being attacked and you sit at home and do nothing. Have the morals of life
reached such a point that you only care for yourself?"
Three
months later, apparently inspired by their elder brother's example, his two
younger brothers, Abdullah then 18 and Jaffar, 17, headed out to join him.
Ibrahim Kamara traveled with them. All joined the ranks of al-Nusra.
The
Deghayes were born and bred in Britain. Kamara fled battle-torn Sierra Leone
with his mother when he was aged just five. He came to Britain after several
years in Holland. The Deghayes and Kamara were longstanding school friends.
Before
he left for Syria, Kamara, 19, was studying computer science. His mother
Khadija told CNN that Ibrahim, the eldest of her four sons, never had any
problems with police and regularly helped her in the charity store she ran to
raise funds to build schools in her native Sierra Leone.
Khadija
said her son was infuriated by what he saw as lack of international action to
alleviate the suffering of civilians in the Syrian civil war. But he never told
her he intended going there.
"Ibrahim
called me on February 2 and said 'Mum I'm in Syria'. I just turned the phone
off. When he called me again I said 'don't call me again.' I was really
angry," said Khadija Kamara as she sat in her Brighton home.
"It
wasn't just that I was angry with him. I just couldn't stand that my kid went
to such a dangerous place. I didn't want to face it," she added as she
sobbed into her headscarf.
She
says she reported her son's trip to Brighton police but officers said they
could not help coax him back. British counter-terrorism police declined to
discuss details of Kamara's case.
Further
checks revealed Kamara, who did not have his own valid travel papers, had
stolen his 15-year-old brother Muhammad's passport. He reportedly flew from
Luton airport with Abdullah and Jaffar Deghayes. It is not known what route
they took into Syria.
Khadija
Kamara is flabbergasted that three Muslim teenagers, including one traveling on
a stolen 15-year-old's passport, were able to make it out of Britain so easily.
"I
couldn't save my son. He's already dead and I can't even bury him. But at least
let me get the answer to this. How did he travel how did he go through the
airport?" she asked.
"How
can a bunch of kids travel like that and nobody even suspected? This isn't
about a religious thing, it's about all of us being responsible," she
said.
The
British government has repeatedly said it will crackdown on what it calls the
"flow of foreign fighters" to Syria. But this week, the Home Office
told CNN it was the responsibility of individual airlines to check the identity
of departing passengers not border police.
When
Kamara left with the two Deghayes brothers, their father quickly found out and
trailed them to Turkey. He says he pleaded -- unsuccessfully -- with them to
come home.
"They
were very adamant they wanted to catch up with their brother. It was very
painful, you feel very helpless. I told them stick to aid work and humanitarian
work," said Abubaker Deghayes, speaking to CNN at his spacious home on the
outskirts of Brighton.
Deghayes,
who rents and develops property, first came to the Brighton area from Libya
when he was eight to learn English.
He
came to live in Britain as a political refugee when his father, a prominent
opposition lawyer, was murdered in jail by the Gadhafi regime in 1980.
Deghayes
had made several trips to take aid to Syria. Years earlier he'd taken aid to
Bosnia and Kosovo with Christian-led charity workers. But his younger sons did
not stick closely to his footsteps.
He
found that out with tragic consequences in April. Abdullah was killed near the
Turkish border in clashes with Syrian regime forces.
Then,
as last week with Kamara's death, it fell to the eldest of the Brighton jihadis
Amer Deghayes to report back with the news.
"Amer
told me Abdullah advanced into territory of the Syrian army then a sniper shot
him in the chest. He fell on the ground and looked at the sky and laughed.
That's how his brother describes it," explained Abubaker Deghayes.
"You
feel he died a good death as a Muslim. As a martyr, he goes to paradise. But at
the same time you feel sad for the loss. Abdullah was so young, he had so much
in front of him," Deghayes said.
His
grieving may not be over. With the launch of U.S. and coalition airstrikes, the
danger in Syria is rising. Now, his son Amer says al-Nusra is considering an
alliance with its one-time rivals ISIS to confront the U.S.-led offensive.
"I
very much doubt we will unite as a single group. But the scholars of Islam have
come together to work toward a peace treaty between all groups since they see
it's more beneficial to face the coalition," Amer said.
He
insisted, however, that al-Nusra still had serious differences with ISIS over
its brutal tactics, particularly beheading hostages and attacking unarmed
civilians.
As
the Skype signal with Amer Deghayes began to fade, he offered another detail to
try and comfort Khadija Kamara, the mother of his fallen friend.
"Khalil
(Ibrahim) is definitely buried in a nice place and he had a good burial,"
he said.
As
I visited Khadija, on a bright end-of-summer day, she seems resigned that she
would never be able to bring her son for burial at home. So instead she
imagines him at peace in some quiet corner, far from the battlefield.
She
tells me: "I think they would have buried him in the mountain. And I say
to myself, 'don't worry god is there in the mountains, god is everywhere. God
have mercy on you my son.'"
PASSIVE SENTENCES
1.
He said he had been inspired by a primetime
documentary on Britain's Channel.
In this sentence "had been inspired" is included into passive
because it has pattern "had + been + inspired. It is considered to
auxiliary be ( had ) + been ( pattern of passive ) + inspired ( verb 3 ). It is
past perfect tense.
2.
It doesn't make much sense to me that people are being
attacked and you sit at home and do nothing.
In this sentence "are being attacked" is included into passive
because it has pattern " are + being + attacked. It is considered to
auxiliary be ( are ) + being ( pattern of passive ) + attacked (verb 3 ). It is simple present continues
tense.
3.
The Deghayes were born and bred in Britain.
In this sentence "were born" is included into passive because
it has pattern "were + born". It is considered to auxiliary be, past
tense ( were ) + born ( verb 3 ). It is simple past tense.
4.
Khadija said her son was infuriated by what he saw as
lack of international action to alleviate the suffering civilians in the Syrian
civil war.
In this sentence "was infuriated" is included into passive
because it has pattern "was + infuriated". It is considered to auxiliary
be, past tense ( was ) + infuriated (
verb 3 ). It is simple past tense.
5.
He came to live in Britain as a political refugee when
his father, a prominent opposition lawyer, was murdered in jail by the Gadhafi
regime in 1980.
In this sentence "was murdered" is included into passive
because it has pattern "was + murdered". It is considered to
auxiliary be, past tense ( was ) + murdered ( verb 3 ). It is simple past
tense.
ACTIVE SENTENCES
1.
We called him Khalil and that means friend.
In this sentence "called" is considered to active sentence
word "called" is verb 2 of verb 1, call. It is included into simple
past tense with subject "we".
2.
He
found that out with tragic consequences in April
In this sentence "found" is considered to active sentence word
"found" is verb 2 of verb 1, find. It is included into simple past
tense with subject "he".
3.
The
Muslim nation is one body.
In this sentence "is" is considered to active sentence, word
"is" is auxiliary be. It is included into simple present tense with
the subject "The Muslim Nation".
4.
He came to live
in Britain as a political refugee when his father.
In this sentence "came" is considered to active sentence word
"came" is verb 2 of verb 1, come. It is included into simple past
tense with subject "he".
5.
News
of Kamara's death was just the latest chapter in the tale of four Brighton
youngsters, who, fresh out of school, headed to war.
In this sentence "was" is considered to active sentence, word
"was" is auxiliary be. It is included into simple past tense with the
subject "news
of Kamara's death".
