THE Tory government yesterday conceded that a ‘hit list’ of names of several ‘British jihadis’ were drawn up at the meeting of senior national security council members that approved the drone strike that killed Cardiff-born 21-year-old Reyaad Khan.
The existence of a ‘hit list’ comes to light as Tory Defence Secretary Michael Fallon announced that he would not hesitate to strike in Syria again, despite Parliament voting down such actions.
Meanwhile, the father of two young men believed to be in Syria said he fears that his sons could be the next victims of an illegal UK drone attack. Nasser Muthana, 21, went to school in Cardiff with Reyaad Khan and is believed to be in Syria with his 18-year-old brother, Aseel.
Their father Ahmed, a retired electrical engineer, said: ‘I am frightened because my sons are out there too. I worry that they could be on a hit list. I don’t think I will ever see my sons again.’
Professor Joseph Dias of the University of Leicester yesterday questioned the very nature of ‘preemptive strikes for self-defence’. He said: ‘In 2003, concerning the Iraq war, the Attorney General at the time, Lord Goldsmith, said that even he discounted the possibility of preemptive self defence at that point.
‘The UK has remained opposed to that as an evolving doctrine of international law.
‘It seems here that the Prime Minister is announcing that we have changed wholesale our approach to the law of self defence. So I think that it is very important to hear what advice he has been given by the current Attorney General. But I should add just because the Attorney General says that it is lawful, does not make it so.’
