British soldiers who fought IS 'planned to kill themselves if captured'

Two former British soldiers who travelled to Syria to fight against Islamic State say they made plans to kill themselves if they were captured by the militants.

Speaking to Sky News, James Hughes and Jamie Read say they felt they couldn't sit back and watch I-S behead innocent people.

The two ex-British soldiers have had panic alarms fitted to their homes upon their return for fear of reprisals from extremists.

They revealed the heightened security around them since their return in their first television interview, in which they also describe the battleground in the war-torn country as “like World War One”.

Mr Read, 24, from Cumbria in Engaldn, had previously said his motivation for travelling to fight was the murder of aid volunteer Alan Henning and he told Sky News he and Mr Hughes, 26, from Worcestershire, “felt compelled” to take up arms.

“I could not justify sitting back in the UK and watching IS pretty much do what they like,” he told the broadcaster.

Upon their return they were detained at Heathrow Airport and questioned for six hours, although they were not arrested and were released before their homes were placed under monitoring by counter-terror police.

Mr Read, who had a brief stint in the Second Battalion, The Duke of Lancaster’s regiment, said: “The counter-terrorism police have got our houses red-flagged in the sense of if any calls come out from that area they will be straight to our house. We have got panic alarms fitted in both our houses now.”

Mr Hughes, who served three tours of Afghanistan with the Army, added: “There’s patrols purposely put out in case of said event would happen.”

On their arrest, Mr Read said they knew there was a risk but he felt their mission was a “humanitarian effort” and the pair also again denied claims they were “mercenaries”, saying they had come back to “a lot of debt”.

The pair also revealed they had resolved to take their own lives if they felt they could be captured by the militants, who were battling Kurdish forces to take control of the Syrian border town of Kobani.

“If at any one point we honestly, genuinely felt they were coming coming for us, ’it’s definitely over’, if we had rounds on us, if we had weapons on us then keep one for yourself,” Mr Read said.

“Nobody wants to get captured by IS, nobody wants to end up on YouTube getting their head cut off. Nobody wants that. As harsh as it sounds, (using your weapon on yourself) is probably the better way to go.”