A DERBY man who has vowed to become a suicide bomber has been condemned by leaders of the community where he was brought up.
Abu Sumayyah, of Normanton, has told a TV documentary he is on the waiting list to blow himself up.
Footage from the documentary shows Sumayyah at a training camp in Syria run by the militant Islamist group ISIS.
On the BBC Panorama show, he tells how he is trying to "get his name pushed up the list" of potential suicide bombers fighting for ISIS.
Derbyshire police confirmed Special Branch officers were aware of Sumayyah's appearance on the programme and were also looking at comments by him in an interview with the Sunday Mirror.
On Panorama, Sumayyah appeared in a Skype interview. In it, he says: "Everyone's got their name on the list and everyone is asking the Emir (leader) to push their name up. Everyone wants to fight for the sake of Allah."
In the interview broadcast this week, Sumayyah claimed about 500 British men had joined ISIS. He said: "If the British commits terror against our people, is unjust towards our people, kills, murders and rapes our people then you can expect attacks on your soil.
"If you support our enemies against us then you can expect these attacks, and so can America and so can any other country."
ISIS grew out of the civil war in Syria and has now taken over part of Iraq.
ISIS had close links with al-Qaeda until 2014, but in February, after an eight-month power struggle, al-Qaeda cut all ties with the group.
A spokesman for Derbyshire police said Special Branch had been informed about Sumayyah.
He said: "We are aware of the media coverage surrounding this person and their actions in Syria and we are monitoring the situation."
Sumayyah has also featured in a national newspaper, which claims he left his wife and three children in Derby a year ago and is currently at a training camp in Syria.
That article claims Summayah spoke to a pro-ISIS internet station last month, telling them life with the group is "better than that game Call of Duty".
Councillor Fareed Hussain, who represents Arboretum Ward where Summayah used to live, said: "Most of the people I know who live in that street are from a Pakistani origin and I do not recognise his name as it is more Arabic sounding.
"My assumption is that he has changed his name once he got to Syria.
"This is the first I have heard about a local man travelling to fight in this conflict and I completely condemn it.
"We have urged people in Derby not to physically get involved in the conflict and instead have been urging them to donate money to the victims of the conflict."
City council leader Ranjit Banwait said: "The consequences of this man's actions is to bring utter shame on himself and his family.
"There is nothing courageous about joining another person's conflict. What they are doing is bringing harm and misery and the language they are preaching is the language of hatred and evil and I condemn it in the strongest way possible."
Chris Williamson, MP for Derby North, said: "I just find so incredibly depressing that anyone from Derby could get involved in any type of extremist organisation.
"He is certainly not remotely representative of the vast majority of Muslims we have in Derby and it is really important that wider community pulls together to drive out any form of radicalisation of young people."
Yesterday there was no answer at Sumayyah's address in Derby.
University of Derby lecturer Frank Faulkner, an expert in terrorism, said: "You just cannot legislate for what might be going through their minds once they have been radicalised.
"ISIS are trying to create a Khalif state, headed by the supreme leader of Islam, which has not existed since the fall of the Ottoman empire 100 years ago.
"They are a real group and a genuine terror threat."
The most notorious Derby link to terrorism is the case of 27-year-old Omar Sharif, from Normanton.
The former Bemrose School pupil travelled to a busy Tel Aviv bar on April 30, 2003, to kill himself and other customers by detonating a bomb inside his rucksack, but it failed to go off and his body was found in the sea two weeks later.
Last year the school's deputy head, Neil Wilkinson, was hailed as a "trailblazer" for welcoming the police into the school and alongside them speaks to youngsters about the dangers of becoming involved in terrorism and extremism.
He was handed a Chief Constable's Commendation for his work.
