A doctor? But…but…I thought poverty caused terrorism! “NHS doctor led Syrian terror cell that took British journalist hostage,” by Kerry Mcdermott for the Daily Mail, August 26 (thanks to David):
An NHS doctor on leave from a London hospital was part of a heavily-armed extremist gang who took a British journalist hostage in war-torn Syria.
The Kalashnikov-toting doctor – believed to be around 28 – told photographer John Cantlie he had taken a sabbatical from his medical work to come to Syria and fight a ‘holy war’.
The bearded medic, who spoke with a south London accent and said he had a wife and a child back in the UK, told the captive photographer he intended to return to an NHS job in Britain after his time in Syria.
Mr Cantlie, 41, was captured along with Dutch colleague Jeroen Oerlemans while they were in the country to report on the civil war between President Assad’s army and rebel fighters.
The mystery doctor, who kept his face covered with sunglasses and a scarf, was one of around a dozen British militants who held the two journalists prisoner at a camp inside the Syrian border last month.
‘It was a bit of a surprise to find an NHS doctor as one of our captors – with an AK-47 and preaching Sharia law,’ Mr Cantlie told the Sun newspaper.
But…but…Sharia is benign and completely compatible with Western principles of human rights!