UK government minister says British ISIS fighters should be killed in Syria

The U.K.'s international development minister has suggested that British Islamic State militants should not be allowed to return to the country and be killed on the battlefields of Iraq and Syria instead.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live's "Pienaar's Politics" on Sunday, Rory Stewart, a former diplomat, said that British nationals who joined the terror group should expect to be killed because of the "serious danger" they posed to national security.

"They are absolutely dedicated, as members of the Islamic State, towards the creation of a caliphate. They believe in an extremely hateful doctrine which involves killing themselves, killing others and trying to use violence and brutality to create an 8th Century, or 7th Century, state," Stewart said.

"So I'm afraid we have to be serious about the fact these people are a serious danger to us, and unfortunately, the only way of dealing with them will be, in almost every case, to kill them," he added.

According to The Guardian, hundreds of British nationals are known to have traveled to Syria to join ISIS during the course of the six-year conflict. Brett McGurk, a top U.S. envoy for the coalition of fighting ISIS, has recently stated that his mission was to make sure that every foreign fighter in Syria dies there.

A government spokesperson has stated that Stewart's comments were in line with the U.K.'s stated position.

His comments stand in contrast to the U.K.'s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, Max Hill, who told the BBC that British nationals who join the terror group out of "naivety" should be spared prosecution if they returned home.

Hill also said that the government should look into ways on how British converts to ISIS could be reintegrated back into society.

Earlier this month, the head of MI5 revealed that more than 130 Britons who fought with the terror group in Iraq and Syria have died.

Stewart had stressed that the British government discourages people from volunteering with militia groups to fight ISIS. He said that those who want to fight terrorism should instead apply to join the military, the police or the U.K.'s intelligence services, adding "we'll train you, we'll work with you to do it in a legal and controlled fashion."

He further noted that the British government is still aiming to remove Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from his seat. He said that it would be "impossible to have a long-term, stable, sustainable future for Syria" as long as Assad is in power.