Militants returning from Syria threat to UK, West: Experts

Security experts have warned that foreign militants returning from Syria are a threat to Britain and other Western countries.
In a report to a Home Affairs Select Committee inquiry on counter-terrorism, security experts raised alarm that a terror attack on British soil is “inevitable.”
Hundreds of Britons are reportedly operating alongside terrorist groups to topple the Syrian government.
The report added that the foreign militants in Syria are gaining “combat experience and forging connections with extremists” and as a result, they could “return radicalized” and “seek to carry out attacks against the West.”
Last week, the EU counter-terrorism coordinator, Gilles de Kerchove, called for coordinated action by European countries to prevent possible attacks in the future.
He warned that the threat posed by militants returning from Syria is “unprecedented,” adding, “National budgets devoted to counter-terrorism are declining across the EU. Yet the threat that we face is becoming more diverse, more diffuse, and more unpredictable.”
A British defense study published last September showed that about 100,000 militants, fragmented into 1,000 groups, were operating in Syria against the government and people.
Foreign-sponsored Takfiri groups have been behind many of the deadly bomb attacks targeting both civilians and government institutions across the country over the past three years.