‘Significant progress’ in hunt for Foley’s killer

"Significant progress" is being made in the hunt for the apparently British murderer of the American journalist James Foley, the UK’s counter-terrorism chief has said.

Assistant commissioner Mark Rowley appealed for help in rooting out aspiring home-grown terrorists as he decried the 41-year-old’s “pitiless” death at the hands of Islamic extremists in Iraq.

Islamic State terrorists posted a video online last week of the horrifying murder of hostage Mr Foley at the hands of a killer who spoke with a British accent.

Yesterday, Mr Rowley, the UK’s top counter-terrorism officer, said: “Every reasonable person in the country has been touched by the pitiless murder of James Foley at the hands of Islamic State terrorists, and the murderer’s apparent British nationality has focused attention on extremism in the UK as well as the Middle East. Investigators are making significant progress.”

He appealed to family members and friends of aspiring UK terrorists to come forward, stressing that nearly half of would-be jihadis identified as part of Syria-linked investigations had not previously been classed as dangerous.

In the first half of this year 69 suspected extremists who planned to travel to Syria or fund terrorism there were arrested, and five times as many suspects are being arrested now compared to 2013.

He said: “High priority operations, especially against those involved in attack planning or on the cusp have increased greatly. Port stops and cash seizures have grown by over 50% as we strive to disrupt terrorists.

“The biggest growth in Syrian-related investigations has occurred in London and the West Midlands.

“The growth of dangerous individuals poses challenges for policing, especially when nearly half of Syria travellers of concern were not known as terrorist risks previously.

“Hence, we appeal to the public to help identify for us aspiring terrorists — they may be about to travel abroad, have just returned or be showing signs of becoming radicalised.”

Scotland Yard investigators are currently having hundreds of pieces of terrorist content linked to Syria removed from websites including YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

Mr Rowley said the force is also trying to prevent hate crimes that may be sparked by events abroad.

He added: “There is a lot at stake. In addition to the public assistance in identifying potential terrorists, we all need community and religious leaders to continue to speak out against warped narratives and we need everyone to ensure that public debate does not give oxygen to the terrorists by giving them the publicity they seek.”