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Former MI6 director of global counter-terrorism Richard Barrett: "You don't know which ones are coming back... quite severely radicalised"
The security services will not be able to monitor all of the Britons who return to the country after fighting in Syria, a former MI6 director has said.
Richard Barrett issued the warning following reports there could be as many as 500 Britons fighting in Syria.
He said fighters who posed a terror threat on their return would be a "very small" but unpredictable number.
His comments come after an apparent recruitment video for jihadists in Iraq and Syria featured several Britons.
Mr Barrett, a former MI6 director of global counter-terrorism, told the BBC News Channel it was "out of the question" for the security services to follow all of the Britons who had fought in Syria if and when they returned.
"Clearly they'll have to prioritise and they'll have to choose those that they think are likely to pose the greatest risk," he said.
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This footage purports to show Reyaad Khan (C) and Nasser Muthana (R) from Wales
"Beyond that I think they'll have to rely very much on members of the community and other people expressing their concern and worry about the behaviour of perhaps their returned friend or family member."
'Long-term' threatEnd Quote Assistant Chief Constable following the conviction of Mashudur ChoudhurAnyone thinking of travelling to fight jihad against the Assad regime, think again"
Mr Barrett said the radicalisation of young Britons was "perplexing" but one reason they were heading to Syria could be the lack of a sense of identity in the UK.
He added the recruitment networks operating in Europe were "suggestive of a greater deal of radicalisation than people just going on their own" but there was not "necessarily a linear progression from being a fighter in Syria to being a domestic terrorist".
The former MI6 director said the level of threat posed by returning fighters would depend on what had happened to them while they were in Syria and why they had returned home.
"The trouble is, you don't know which ones are coming back just wanting to get on with their lives and which ones are coming back quite severely radicalised," he added.
Police have urged Britons considering travelling to Syria to fight not to do so.
They warned would-be jihadists that they were likely to be killed or kidnapped if they took part in the conflict, or likely to be arrested if they returned to the UK.
On Sunday, Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick warned that UK police would have to deal with the threat of British fighters returning from Syria for "many years", with the conflict representing a "long-term" terrorist threat.
"We are really alert to the fact that people may come back and they may have military training," she told BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend.
"They may seek - although it's very difficult - to smuggle weaponry here and they may seek to cause violence or to encourage others to cause violence."
'One and only son'Two of the men who appeared in a video posted by internet accounts linked to militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) - which has a presence in Syria and is fighting government forces in Iraq - have now been identified.
The mother of one of the men, 20-year-old Reyaad Khan, from Cardiff made an emotional plea to her son on Sky News.
"Reyaad, please come back home. I'm dying for you. You're my only son," she said.
The father of aspiring medical student Nasser Muthana, also 20 and from Cardiff, spoke of his shock at seeing his son in the video.
He added that his younger son, Aseel, 17, had also travelled to the country in February, several months after Nasser left.
Sheikh Zane Abdo, of the South Wales Islamic Centre in Cardiff and who knew Nasser and Aseel, told the BBC that the brothers had become serious about their faith and had begun expressing political views.
He added that radicalisation over the internet needed to be addressed.
"A platform has been given to this video that really shouldn't have been given," he said.
"So there are issues around the internet, issues around people who can radicalise, who can talk to young people, and it's a mixture of these things that has produced what has [happened] over the weekend and past few days."
Former Cardiff councillor Mohammed Saul Islam rejected suggestions that radicalisation was happening in mosques in the city.
"We are very much suspecting all of this preaching is happening through the internet clerics," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
He said imams preaching in Cardiff were living within the community and not the sort of hardliners who would brainwash young people to become fanatics.
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis)
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Isis fighters have been pushing towards Iraq's capital, Baghdad
Isis grew out of an al-Qaeda-linked organisation in Iraq
- Estimated 10,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria
- Joined in its offensives by other Sunni militant groups, including Saddam-era officers and soldiers, and disaffected Sunni tribal fighters
- Exploits standoff between Iraqi government and the minority Sunni Arab community, which complains that Shia Prime Minister Nouri Maliki is monopolising power
- Led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, an obscure figure regarded as a battlefield commander and tactician
Last month, a 31-year-old man from Portsmouth became the first person in the UK to be convicted of terrorist offences in connection with the conflict in Syria.
A court heard how father-of-two Mashudur Choudhury travelled to Syria to attend a terrorist training camp. He was convicted of engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts.
Have you been affected by the issues raised in this story? You can send us your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk using the subject line "Isis".
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