The father of two British jihadists thought to have been fighting alongside Reyaad Khan, the Isil terrorist killed in an RAF drone strike, has said he fears his sons will be next.
Ahmed Muthana – whose sons Nasser, 20, and 17-year-old Aseel also left their home in Cardiff and travelled to Syria – suggested David Cameron was “right” to order strikes on Isil fighters if they were planning terror attacks in Britain.
But the 57-year-old retired electrical engineer, who came to Britain from Yemen aged 13, said he feared it was only a matter of time before he received the news that his boys had been killed in a targeted drone strike.
Speaking from his home in the Bute Town district of Cardiff, Mr Muthana said: “Of course I am worried that my boys are now on a Government hit list.
“I am worried that this will be their fate. But if what the Government says is true [about planned terrorist attacks] then it was right what they did.”
Nasser Muthana, who had been a promising medical student, went to the same school as Khan and is thought to have become radicalised at around the same time.
Last year, his father spoke of his shock and devastation when he suddenly disappeared last November and turned up on an Isil recruitment video alongside Khan in Syria.
Just three months later, his younger son Aseel, who was just 17 at the time, also disap-peared and is thought to have travelled to Syria via Cyprus to join the jihadists.
Earlier this year, Mr Muthana said he was devastated by what had happened but had no choice but to disown his children for what they had done.
He said he had heard about Khan’s death a few days ago and had expressed his sympathy to his family.
Mr Muthana said: “I saw Mr Khan at the mosque and told him I was sorry. He was crying. He is a good man. He can’t believe his son was involved. No one can believe it.”
Despite his defence of the Government action in killing Khan, he said the public deserved to know the details of what the Cardiff-born terrorist had allegedly been plotting.
He told The Telegraph: “We have seen problems in the past with Tony Blair and the Iraq War, so it is hard to know if what they are saying is true. I don’t know if David Cameron is telling the truth. There have been problems with the intelligence in the past.
“In five years time we will be looking back and trying to find out what the truth is. I do not believe we will ever see the evidence.”
Khan’s family refused to comment on news that the 20-year-old had been killed in a target-ed drone strike.
A man, thought to be his father, who answered the door at the terraced house in the River-side area of the city said: “We just want to be left alone and we won’t be making any com-ment about Reyaad. My wife is very sick.”