British Islamic State recruiter arrested

A British man has been arrested in Bangladesh on suspicion of recruiting people to fight alongside Islamic State militants in Syria, Sky News reports.

Samiun Rahman, who is from London, arrived in the country in February to find fighters for both IS and the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, according to Monirul Islam, joint commissioner of the Detective and Criminal Intelligence Division.

“He has plans to recruit and send a team from Bangladesh to fight in Syria,” Commissioner Monirul said.

Rahman, whose parents are from a town northeast of the capital Dhaka, has confessed to trying to recruit fighters for the groups, police said, although it is not clear if his efforts were successful.

He told police he had joined the Nusra Front in Syria last September and fought with the group until December 2013.

Police say Rahman returned to Britain at some point and visited other countries to recruit jihadis before going to Bangladesh to do the same.

IS has seized large parts of Iraq and Syria in recent months, and fighting is reportedly continuing around the capital, Baghdad.

An explosion at a makeshift IS hospital has killed at least three fighters in Baquba, Diyala province on Monday, according to Sky sources.

There has also been intense fighting between Kurdish rebels and IS militants close to the Turkish border.

The US has been conducting airstrikes in Iraq since last month in a bid to reverse IS gains, and recently expanded their campaign to neighbouring Syria.

Britain joined the mission last week when MPs approved military action against the Islamists in Iraq.

Although RAF Tornados have flown a number of missions over northern Iraq since then, they have yet to fire any missiles.

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British Islamic State recruiter arrested

Islamic State fighters using US arms – Report

Islamic State fighters appear to be using captured US military issue arms and weapons supplied to moderate rebels in Syria by Saudi Arabia, according to a report published on Monday.

The study by the London-based small-arms research organisation Conflict Armament Research documented weapons seized by Kurdish forces from militants in Iraq and Syria over a 10-day period in July.

The report said the jihadists disposed of “significant quantities” of US-made small arms including M16 assault rifles and included photos showing the markings “Property of US Govt”.

It also found that anti-tank rockets used by IS in Syria were “identical to M79 rockets transferred by Saudi Arabia to forces operating under the Free Syrian Army umbrella in 2013″.

The rockets were made in the then Yugoslavia in the 1980s.

Islamic State is believed to have seized large quantities of weapons from Syrian military installations it has captured, as well as arms supplied by the United States to the Iraqi army after it swept through northern Iraq in recent weeks.

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Islamic State fighters using US arms – Report