Britain-based Taliban fight in Afghanistan, then return home

LONDON - Some Afghan-origin men, who are based in Britain, head to Afghanistan to battle the NATO forces before returning home, a media report said Thursday.

A Taliban guerrilla in northern Afghanistan last month told the Guardian that he stays in east London, but he visits Afghanistan three months of the year for combat.

“I work as a minicab driver.

“I make good money there (in Britain), you know. But these people are my friends and my family and it’s my duty to come to fight the jihad with them,” he was quoted as saying.

He said: “There are many people like me in London… We collect money for the jihad all year and come and fight if we can.”

The Taliban fighter’s elder brother, who fought in Afghanistan, lives in London as well.

British Muslims go to Afghanistan and Pakistan each year to undergo training with terror groups, intelligence officials suspect.

It was reported last year that RAF spy planes, which were in Helmand in southern Afghanistan, detected strong Yorkshire and Birmingham accents on guerrillas using radios and telephones.

The Taliban fighters apparently spoke main Afghan languages of Dari and Pashtu, but used English when they were lost for the right words.

The media report said that the threat was considered serious and spy planes have patrolled skies in Britain hoping to pick up the same voice signatures of the fighters after their return home.

Also, an insurgent’s body found in southern Afghanistan bore an Aston Villa tattoo.

There have been no recent reports of British Taliban in Helmand and the overwhelming majority of foreign fighters were Pakistanis, say British military officials.

A senior official in Afghanistan said that foreign guerrillas tend to be Arabs, Chechens, Pakistanis or from central Asia’s former Soviet republics such as Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.