The father of a young British man, who purportedly appears in a video claiming to show British and Australian jihadis fighting for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), says he's devastated and has urged his son to come home.
Five Islamist fighters identified as Australian and British nationals called on Muslims to join the wars in Syria and Iraq, in the ISIL video.
The online footage, titled "There is No Life Without Jihad," showed the five militants sitting in a rural area and holding rifles with al Qaeda's black flag flying behind them.
They called on Muslims to join ISIL in jihad, or holy war.
A caption said one man was Abu Muthanna al-Yemeni from Britain. His family in Cardiff, Wales, refer to him as Nasser.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the man's father said the police had been in touch with him.
"Myself, not sure but I've been told by the police they're in Syria, both of them (sons) and my son is the one who speak, who spoke the first one in the film. He's the one who read the Arabic Koran, verses of the Koran and then he translated it. That is Nasser," said the man.
He explained it had been an emotional time for the family.
"Sad, crying, I wish I could hold him, hold his hand, ask him to come back. I only noticed when, after four days he disappeared. I noticed he's not coming home. I phone his phone, the phone was switched off. Then I call the police I said missing persons, I said my son is missing. And then three, four days later they came back to me and said your son is in Turkey," he said.
The father said he was unsure how his son's travel to Syria had been facilitated.
"I, to be honest I don't have an idea, but it looks like it's coming from outside. People who have the money, supply them with the money, with the ticket, the traveling and where to go and he, the one who supplied him the places where to go in Turkey, where to go in Syria, there must be somebody, they can't go on their own. They don't speak even Arabic, only little bit, like you know broken Arabic and there have to be somebody guide, someone is guiding them. Who are they? We don't know," he said.
Nasser had shown no signs to the family of his interest in extremism, said the father.
"When Nasser was here, no. He haven't showed anything, he didn't show even he was a radical Muslim, just normal, normal person, he was talking, he is well educated. He got his GCSE (secondary school exam), 13 passes. He was going to apply for uni [university] as a medical student. I'm waiting for him to become a doctor, and then he ended up in bloody Syria."
The family had fond memories of Nasser growing up as a diligent student.
"Daily life, when he was in school, he never late in school. He was .. all the time even if he was sick he go to school. That's when he was a child. When he go to secondary school same things, never miss. He don't laugh, play too much. He liked to study and he don't like to waste time, joke," he said.
"He was adventurous, he was, he likes you know to see my other boy's daughter. His nephew, no his nieces. His nieces, he likes to see her all the time. He likes to play with her when she was only a little baby, a baby."
The father suspects the internet played a role in luring his son to Syria.
"I think first of things is the internet. When they see peoples killed, cut necks and hands and you drive them somewhere, you have to be because they are children vulnerable for, to anything. And then the big people will put their mind on them with .. that's why you can do this, oh we advise you, you can do this. But where and who are they? I can't find out."
The family had grave fears for their son's future.
"If this video's true, I think they are going to be killed or kill, ah kill or killed."
The father said the family was distancing itself from the online video, but did want Nasser to know he could come home.
"Yeah, a very clear message (in the video), they are going to fight and make one country, the whole Arab, Muslim country in one land. They can't do it. And I don't support them. As a father I give a message to all of them, not only to Nasser, to all the people who goes from Britain to Syria to fight. Please stop, go back to Turkey and come back home. You are safe to go back to United Kingdom and to go into any other Arab country, or a Muslim country," he said.
The father said learning of his son's whereabouts had been an overwhelming experience.
"Devastating. Like you lose your child in going for unknown destinations. What do you think? He being with me for 19 years. You bring him up, you feed, you take them to school, bring him home. Next with high school, I used to take him by car. I don't let him catch the bus, I used to drive him and now carry him back. And one day he just disappear from you."
"I hope the person who's behind this, he got being caught, he can be caught and bloody get justice on him."
An expert from the King's College London International Center for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence said the extremist video was a landmark moment for ISIL.
"It signifies that they believe they have momentum right now, they want to capitalize on that momentum, they want to get people who are maybe on the brink of going, people in western countries like Britain who are saying maybe I should go but I'm not entirely sure, to get them to come," said Professor Peter Neumann.
With stunning speed, ISIL, an offshoot of al Qaeda, has captured swathes of territory in northwest and central Iraq, including the second city of Mosul, seizing large amounts of weaponry from the fleeing Iraqi army and looting banks.
President Barack Obama has offered up to 300 Americans to help coordinate the Baghdad government's battle against the Sunni insurgent group.
ISIL, which is also fighting in neighboring Syria, includes thousands of foreign fighters and has become a magnet for jihadi volunteers from Europe and North Africa, Western intelligence agencies say.
Earlier this month, nine European countries endorsed plans to step up intelligence-sharing and take down radical websites to try to stop European citizens going to fight in Syria and bringing violence back home with them.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Wednesday (June 18) that Sunni Islamist insurgents fighting in Iraq were planning to attack Britain and that "ungoverned spaces" where militants thrived had to be shut down.
REUTERS