Written By Unknown on Kamis, 25 Desember 2014 | 20.49
A cold weather alert has been issued - with a warning that more than four inches of snow could fall in some areas on Boxing Day.
The Met Office said the conditions could "increase the health risks to vulnerable patients and disrupt the delivery of services".
According to the alert, there is an 80% probability of "severe cold weather/icy conditions/heavy snow between 3pm on Friday and 12am on Wednesday in parts of England".
"Snow is likely in some northern and central areas, more especially on hills, with some significant accumulations possible," it said.
"There is also an increasing signal for snow to affect some southern areas. The areas currently at greatest risk are parts of the Midlands, and southern parts of northern England."
Sky News weather producer Rebecca Yussuf said the cold weather and snow may cause disruption to travel plans.
"There is a risk of several centimetres of snow falling even at low levels, with as much as 10cm possible in places," she said.
Video:Sky News UK Weather Forecast
"There is still quite a lot of uncertainty with the forecast, but much of England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic are likely to see some very wet and windy weather.
"Heavy rain and strong winds will move eastwards across the Republic, southern England and Wales during Boxing Day morning, but may turn to sleet and snow over the Midlands and southern parts of northern England during the afternoon.
"It will turn notably colder after the rain and snow clears, with overnight frosts and temperatures struggling to get much above zero.
"The very young, the elderly and those with illnesses may be badly affected by these colder conditions, so if you know anybody who falls into these categories, take a moment to look in on them over the next few days."
The Archbishop of Canterbury has been forced to cancel his annual Christmas Day sermon after coming down with a heavy cold.
Lambeth Palace said the Most Rev Justin Welby has been suffering from a "severe cold" for several days and decided this morning that he was too unwell to speak at the annual Canterbury Cathedral service.
A Lambeth Palace spokesman said the Archbishop "is suffering from a severe cold and will, with great regret, no longer be preaching the sermon at Canterbury Cathedral this morning.
"The Dean of Canterbury, the Very Rev Robert Willis, will deliver a homily."
The Archbishop had been due to talk about how the true spirit of Christmas cannot be captured in fairytale endings, using the example of the First World War Christmas truce in 1914.
The Archbishop had been due to say: "The truce illustrates something of the heart of Christmas, whereby God sends his Son, that vulnerable sign of peace, to a weary war-torn world.
"The problem is that the way it is told now it seems to end with a 'happy ever after'.
"Of course we like Christmas stories with happy endings: singing carols, swapping photos, shaking hands, sharing chocolate, but the following day the war continued with the same severity.
"Nothing had changed; it was a one-day wonder.
"That is not the world in which we live, truces are rare."
A 13-year-old girl has said she was made to wear a bomb belt and taken to a market in Nigeria by Boko Haram extremists but refused to detonate the device.
Zahara'u Adam said her father gave her to the Islamist group, but she told her captors she did not want to be a suicide bomber.
She allowed them to strap the bomb on her because they threatened to bury her alive.
She was taken to a market in Kano, Nigeria's second largest city in the north, with two other girls, who detonated the bombs.
The bomb belt that the girl was forced to wear
Four people were killed in the explosion on 10 December.
Zahara'u said she was too scared to detonate the bomb when she saw the aftermath of what her counterparts had done.
Injured by the blasts, the girl found her way to a hospital where police arrested her while she was receiving treatment.
She was presented to journalists by police and instructed to recount how the militants allegedly forced her to take part in the attack - a move police hope will boost public awareness of the group's tactics.
"My father took us to the bush which was surrounded by gunmen, I was asked if I want to go to heaven, when I answered they said I have to go for a suicide mission and if I attempt to run, they will kill me," she recounted at a press conference.
"So from there we were sent to Kano. When we came to Kano market, one of us said we should go separately, but I refused.
"After my friend detonated her own I was wounded."
There was no way to independently verify her story and she had no lawyer present.
Boko Haram has been fighting for five years to establish an Islamist state in Nigeria's northeast.
The group has increasingly used female suicide bombers.
The Queen has marked Christmas Day by attending a traditional church service at Sandringham.
Well-wishers started gathering before dawn in the bitter cold to catch a glimpse of the royals - and by mid-morning thousands were present.
Queen Elizabeth was joined by the Duke of Edinburgh for the service at St Mary Magdalene's church on the Norfolk estate.
But the Duchess of Cornwall did not attend the service on advice from doctors after she "put her back out", Clarence House said.
Camilla "has been in pain and is receiving physiotherapy. The doctors have advised against any travel," a Clarence House spokeswoman said.
Also missing was Prince George, but he is likely to have spent the morning in the care of his nanny. His parents, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, attended.
1/12
Gallery: Royals Attends Church Service
The Queen attended the traditional Christmas service at Sandringham
She was joined by the Duke of Edinburgh and other members of the Royal Family
Written By Unknown on Senin, 22 Desember 2014 | 20.49
By Mark Stone, China Correspondent
The United Nations Security Council is to hold its first ever meeting to discuss "unspeakable atrocities" and "grave human rights violations" allegedly being carried out in North Korea.
The 15-member council, which includes the UK, the US, China and Russia, will discuss whether North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un should be referred to the International Criminal Court for "crimes against humanity".
The US Ambassador to the UN welcomed the meeting.
Samantha Power said: "The human rights violations in North Korea are among the worst in the world. They are widespread. They are systematic."
She added: "Given the threat they pose to peace and security, they have been going on outside the scrutiny of the UN Security Council for far too long."
The meeting was called following an unprecedented UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) report, published in February, catalogued a list of crimes which it said were "widespread and systematic" and "unparalleled in the modern world".
The COI, chaired by retired Australian judge Michael Kirby, sat through witnesses' testimony from scores of North Korean defectors who described their lives inside the country.
The report lists murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortion, sexual violence, forcible transfers and forced disappearances.
Signs warn people not to host defectors
Mr Kirby said there were "many parallels" between the evidence he heard and crimes committed by the Nazis in World War Two. He said the international community could not claim, as it did with the Nazis, that they were unaware of the crimes.
"Now the international community does know. There will be no excusing a failure of action because we didn't know. It's too long now. The suffering and the tears of the people of North Korea demand action," he said.
Video:Getting A Glimpse Of N Korea Life
It is not yet clear whether the Security Council will now also discuss the hacking of Sony Pictures following the announcement by US President Barack Obama that North Korea was responsible.
The UN meeting comes as Sky News has filmed rare pictures across the Chinese border into North Korea. The images demonstrate the poverty inside the country and the degree to which China cooperates with its old ally.
At the border town of Ji'an only a narrow river separates China with North Korea. Looking across, guard towers were visible every few hundred metres.
1/19
Gallery: Sky News On China's North Korea Border
Sky News has filmed rare pictures across the Chinese border into North Korea. The images demonstrate the poverty inside the country and the degree to which China cooperates with its old ally
At the border town of Ji'an only a narrow river separates China with North Korea
From the outside America may seem to be a land of endless optimism and confidence. But could it be in danger of falling apart?
An increasing number of Americans seem to think so, and they're preparing for the end.
They call themselves preppers. Mainstream suburban Americans hoarding supplies and weapons while leading otherwise perfectly normal lives.
This old nuclear missile facility has been turned into an apocalypse refuge
It's a national phenomenon and it's supporting a doom boom industry worth many millions.
Braxton Southwick is a typical father-of-six in Salt Lake City, who believes the nice suburban neighbourhood he lives in could soon be swept away by some kind of modern day apocalypse.
Video:What Is Prepping?
Like other preppers, he's afraid of some impending catastrophe but also what that will do to American society.
"I think that is what I'm scared of the most," he told Sky News, "Not the actual events. I've already prepared for that. It's the aftermath, when there are no police, there are no military to protect us, we're going to be protecting ourselves."
The trigger could be a terrorist attack, a monetary collapse, cataclysmic failure in power generation, or a natural disaster. Preppers fear what comes next and have no faith in either their government or human nature.
"Once people use up all their resources, they're going to come after the people that prepared and had more resources. So basically we have to take care of ourselves."
Braxton and his wife Kara have a basement that will see them through Armageddon, literally. Enough dried and canned food to last six months. Enough guns and ammunition to turn their family into a small army.
And they have trained each of their six children, including the youngest aged 15, how to defend themselves with guns to see off the mobs of marauding looters they predict could come after them after their world collapses.
At the other end of America, another family are preparing in exactly the same way. In Virginia, Jay and Holly Blevins hoard food and weapons and run a network of like-minded families.
Video:Preppers Teach Kids To Shoot Guns
"We're not talking about folks walking around wearing tin foil on their heads," Jay tells Sky News. "We're not talking about conspiracy theorists.
"I'm talking about professionals: doctors and lawyers and law enforcement and military. Normal, everyday people. They can't necessarily put their finger on it. But there's something about the uncertainty of our times. They know something isn't quite right."
Jay is a celebrity in the strange but increasingly mainstream world of preppers, writing prepper books and touring America, speaking at prepper expos where a bewildering range of survival supplies and techniques are on offer.
Why is it happening? Partly, no doubt, because it allows Americans to indulge in some of their favourite pastimes: consuming, camping and buying lots and lots of guns.
And partly because fear sells, drives up numbers for cable news, and increases sales for everything from dried food to assault rifles.
But it's also arguably a sign of a country coping with economic decline. The end of the American Dream has left people more uncertain about their future, and their country's.
Katy Bryson is in Jay's prepper network. Prepping, she says, puts Americans back in charge of their destiny.
Video:Why Are Americans Prepping?
"They're not in control of whether they lose their job or not but they are in control of whether they are prepared. So I feel like that's why the industry is just booming right now for preparedness," Katy added.
It is also a fundamentally American phenomenon. In a country built on the radical individualism of its founding fathers, people have an inbuilt mistrust in their government's ability to protect them.
Sociologist Barry Glastner wrote The Culture of Fear. He told Sky News: "Americans are fairly unique as world citizens in that we tend to believe that we control our own destiny as individuals to a much greater extent than we really do."
Ironically, he points out preppers may actually be reacting to their fears in the least effective way. Dangerous weather, terrorist attacks and economic collapses are all best dealt with by higher authorities, he said.
"Where there are real dangers, to take an individualistic approach is usually exactly the wrong thing to do. So the kinds of things that the preppers are preparing to protect themselves from are much better handled on a community-wide basis than they are in your own home."
:: Dominic Waghorn meets the preppers in The Doom Boom, this Tuesday at 9.30pm on Sky News.
The North Korean government has threatened to "stand in confrontation with the US in all war spaces" as the diplomatic row over a Sony film continues to escalate.
In a strongly-worded statement, officials branded America as "an ill-famed cesspool of injustice and terrorism".
And it warned that "tough counteraction will be boldly taken against the White House, the Pentagon and the whole US mainland".
Despite being accused by the US of being behind the recent Sony hacking, the secretive state continues to insist it had no involvement.
But Pyongyang praised the "surprisingly sophisticated, destructive and threatening cyber warfare" inflicted on the company, as the movie "dared to hurt the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK".
Meanwhile, South Korea has claimed one of its nuclear power plants fell victim to hacking, but stressed no reactors were affected. The developed country has not implicated North Korea in the attack.
The Interview, which included the fictional assassination of leader Kim Jong-Un, was pulled from cinemas before its release after hackers threatened to target those who went to see the film.
Video:Obama: 'We Believe In Free Speech'
A story from the Korean Central News Agency said: "The Interview is undesirable and reactionary. It should not be allowed in any country or any region. The movie has a story agitating a vicious and dastardly method of assassinating a legitimate head of state.
"DPRK is praising the 'guardians of peace' for their righteous deed which prevented in advance the evil cycle of retaliation – terrorism sparks terrorism."
The Pyongyang government claims it is taking a stand "on the US gangster-like behaviour against it" – and alleges it has clear evidence that American authorities were deeply involved in the movie's production, as it would be "effective propaganda against North Korea".
Video:Sony: 'We had no choice'
Its statement said: "The facts glaringly show that the US is the chief culprit of terrorism as it has loudly called for combating terrorism everywhere in the world, but schemed behind the scenes to produce and distribute movies inciting it.
"Nothing is a more serious miscalculation than guessing that just a single movie production company is involved. Our target is all the citadels of the US imperialists who earned the bitterest grudge of Koreans.
"The US should reflect on its evil doings that put itself in such a trouble, apologise to the Koreans and other people of the world, and should not dare pull up others."
Video:Screenings Of Team America Scrapped
North Korea's only significant ally, China, condemned the use of cyber-attacks and cyber-terrorism early on Monday – but stopped short of criticising the state.
President Obama, along with his advisers, is weighing up how to punish North Korea. The FBI concluded that Pyongyang was behind the Sony hacking – the first time that the US has accused another country of orchestrating such a significant cyber-attack.
David Boies, Sony's lawyer, has insisted the embattled entertainment company still plans to release its controversial film - but warned the hack was "a national security problem" and the US government needed to take the lead.
Video:North Korea: Propaganda
"How it's going to be distributed, I don't think anybody knows quite yet. But it's going to be distributed," he told NBC.
Pakistan plans to execute around 500 militants after the government lifted a moratorium on the death penalty in terror cases.
It comes after Taliban gunmen killed 149 people, including 133 children, in a school massacre in the northwestern city of Peshawar last week.
Six militants have been hanged since Friday amid rising public anger over the slaughter.
Around nine gunmen stormed the army-run school on 16 December taking teachers and students hostage and killing them in classrooms.
After the deadliest terror attack in Pakistani history, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ended the six-year moratorium on the death penalty, reinstating it for terrorism-related cases.
"Interior ministry has finalised the cases of 500 convicts who have exhausted all the appeals, their mercy petitions have been turned down by the president and their executions will take place in coming weeks," a senior government official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Of the six hanged so far, five were involved in a failed attempt to assassinate the then-military ruler Pervez Musharraf in 2003, while one was involved in a 2009 attack on army headquarters.
Police, troops and paramilitary Rangers have been deployed across the country and airports and prisons put on red alert as the executions take place and troops intensify operations against Taliban militants in northwestern tribal areas.
Mr Sharif has ordered the attorney general's office to "actively pursue" capital cases currently in the courts, a government spokesman said.
The decision to reinstate executions has been condemned by human rights groups, with the United Nations also calling for it to reconsider.
Human Rights Watch described the executions "a craven politicised reaction to the Peshawar killings" and demanded that no further hangings be carried out.
Pakistan began its de facto moratorium on civilian executions in 2008, but hanging remains on the statute books and judges continue to pass death sentences.
Before Friday's resumption, only one person had been executed since then - a soldier convicted by a court martial and hanged in November 2012.
Written By Unknown on Rabu, 17 Desember 2014 | 20.49
A student who wanted to fly an Islamic State flag over Downing Street has been found guilty of planning to join rebels in Syria.
David Souaan, 20, began to cry when the judge warned him jail is inevitable when he is sentenced in the new year.
He was accused of preparing for terrorist acts in Syria around the time he was stopped at Heathrow Airport on May 31.
The prosecution said he had visited in December last year, and was on his way back to fight the jihadist cause when he was arrested.
The Birkbeck College student, who comes from a wealthy family in Serbia, denied this and insisted his earlier visit to Syria was to collect his grandfather's belongings.
He claimed he posed for pictures with guns because he wanted to look "cool".
A jury took nine hours to find him guilty following a trial at the Old Bailey.
Remanding Souaan in custody, Judge Peter Rook said: "You have been convicted of a very serious offence indeed. You must understand that you will be receiving a custodial sentence in this case."
Souaan came to the UK in 2013 on a three-year visa to study global politics and international relations at Birkbeck College in London.
He was arrested after fellow students became concerned at his radical views on Islam and he had shown off pictures of himself posing with guns.
Police seized his laptop and iPhone and found a mass of pictures, videos and documents revealing his "extremist sympathies" and that he had not only been fighting in Syria before but was intending to return, the Old Bailey heard.
Prosecutor Sarah Whitehouse QC said one video clip on his iPhone was "so graphic and so shocking" that it could not be played in court.
It featured a man kneeling with his head held back as another man cut his throat.
The court heard that Souaan filmed himself attending a demonstration in the UK.
In the background, a man can be heard to say: "The flag of Tawheed in London, all praise be to Allah the lord of the universe."
This was in reference to the wish of Muslim extremists to see the black flag fly over Downing Street.
Sentencing was adjourned until 3 February for pre-sentence reports.
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Video:Britons Reveal IS Fight In Syria
By Lisa Holland, Foreign Affairs Correspondent
Two Britons who went to Syria to fight IS have told of their battles on the front line - and how they vowed to kill each other rather than get captured.
Jamie Read and James Hughes told how they dodged bullets during chaotic patrols with Kurdish forces after recording a "goodbye" video for their families in case they died.
They described spending hours lying in the "pitch black" in no-man's land, in conditions they said were reminiscent of World War One.
On one occasion, it was so cold that a young Kurdish comrade collapsed with hypothermia - "body-popping" on the ground next to them.
In an exclusive Sky News interview after their return to the UK, the pair also revealed how panic alarms have been installed in their homes, amid fears they could be targets for IS supporters.
They strongly denied being mercenaries, telling how they had sold possessions to fund their flights and had returned to the UK to "mounting debts and bills".
1/8
Gallery: British Pair Joined Fight Against Islamic State
James Hughes and Jamie Read gave an exclusive interview to Sky News
James Hughes from Worcestershire is a former soldier who served three tours in Afghanistan
]]>
Jamie Read from Lanarkshire, Scotland, spent time training with the French army
]]>
He said that he had 'zero tolerance' for terrorism
]]>
The men joined Kurdish fighters in Syria battling IS
]]>
They had not been paid "a penny" for their exploits, though they had been "treated like royalty" by some of the Kurdish troops, the men said.
And the former soldiers gave a detailed account of their time in Iraq and Syria, explaining that they had travelled to fight IS militants because they had "zero tolerance for terrorism".
Describing what had prompted them to travel, Mr Read said the beheading of British aid convoy volunteer Alan Henning had been the final straw.
"Alan Henning - aid worker, British - put him on his hands and knees and cut his head off, you know what I mean," Mr Read said.
"Can you really find justification in sitting back here and doing nothing?"
Mr Read, 24, and Mr Hughes, 26, revealed that organising the trip had been quite simple with a "phone call here or there" and some communication over Skype.
They were screened by simply having their Facebook posts checked and ensuring that social media friends were not IS supporters, Mr Read said.
The pair said that after arriving in Irbil, northern Iraq, they were transported via the Kurdish HQ to the front line in Syria.
During the journey the Britons said they had no idea whether they had landed in a trap.
"I'm not going to lie, this was one of the most frightening processes you can go through, you know, the paranoia: through the roof," Mr Read said.
"You get picked up by a guy who doesn't speak English, so straight away there's a language barrier.
Video:UK Needs 'Stronger Foreign Policy'
"When we got to the safe house... it's sort of dodgy-looking, so you think 'I don't really like this'. At one point, you think 'is this the point I'm going to get handed over?'"
After getting a uniform and weapons, Mr Hughes said they eventually "rocked up" on the frontline to an old schoolhouse covered in mud.
They arrived to cheers from their Kurdish comrades, were plied with chai (tea) and cigarettes, and met three other Westerners who had joined the fight.
During their three weeks on the front line, their duties included terrifying night patrols where it was the "blackest black... like being in a cave with no lights".
"You are left staring into the pitch black, hoping no one sees you first," Mr Read said.
The Britons said they had hatched a plan to shoot each dead rather than being caught and paraded on television as hostages.
"We wouldn't get captured, bottom line, we couldn't get captured, we're not getting our heads paraded on YouTube, we made that vow before we went out.
"Everybody out there is carrying a round for themselves. Nobody wants to be captured by IS. Nobody wants to end up on YouTube getting their head cut off.
"So for us, as harsh as it sounds, it's probably the better way to go. It's the old saying, 'you keep a round for each other'."
Describing their final day, Mr Read told how the pair had been out on patrol towards a nearby village where IS militants had been holed up.
"All of a sudden we just got opened up on. Quite a lot of small arms (...) quite a lot of AKs and they were quite close.
1/12
Gallery: Peshmergas On The Front Line In The Battle Against Islamic State
Kurdish Peshmerga forces sweep the Bakirta village near the town of Makhmur, south of Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan
Members of Kurdish "peshmerga" troops ride a vehicle during an intensive security deployment on the outskirts of Diyala, northeast of Baghdad
]]>
"There were rounds coming in and they were really close - they were pinging and they were bouncing, whizzing over your head - obviously it's a very distinctive noise.
"There was a lot of shouting, a lot of screaming, a lot of F-words being dropped."
The pair said they were forced to flee through a village which was "littered with IEDs (improvised explosive devices)" before returning to base.
"We eventually made it out but this was a real eye-opener - this is how these people were going to act - there's something more that needs to be done there."
They returned to Britain last week and were questioned by anti-terrorism officers for six hours at Heathrow airport before being released.
Asked whether they would return to Syria, Mr Read said: "I'd like to think we would have the opportunity to go back."
But he added: "I'm unsure on the political stance - I'm not sure whether our Government would appreciate us going back."
:: You can watch an extended special report on the IS-fighting Britons at 2.30pm, 4.30pm and 8.30pm, today, as well as a half-hour special programme at 9.30pm.
Watch the report on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 132 and Freesat channel 202.
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Exclusive: Death Pact Of IS-Fighting Britons
We use cookies to give you the best experience. If you do nothing we'll assume that it's ok.
Video:Britons Reveal IS Fight In Syria
By Lisa Holland, Foreign Affairs Correspondent
Two Britons who went to Syria to fight IS have told of their battles on the front line - and how they vowed to kill each other rather than get captured.
Jamie Read and James Hughes told how they dodged bullets during chaotic patrols with Kurdish forces after recording a "goodbye" video for their families in case they died.
They described spending hours lying in the "pitch black" in no-man's land, in conditions they said were reminiscent of World War One.
On one occasion, it was so cold that a young Kurdish comrade collapsed with hypothermia - "body-popping" on the ground next to them.
In an exclusive Sky News interview after their return to the UK, the pair also revealed how panic alarms have been installed in their homes, amid fears they could be targets for IS supporters.
They strongly denied being mercenaries, telling how they had sold possessions to fund their flights and had returned to the UK to "mounting debts and bills".
1/8
Gallery: British Pair Joined Fight Against Islamic State
James Hughes and Jamie Read gave an exclusive interview to Sky News
James Hughes from Worcestershire is a former soldier who served three tours in Afghanistan
]]>
Jamie Read from Lanarkshire, Scotland, spent time training with the French army
]]>
He said that he had 'zero tolerance' for terrorism
]]>
The men joined Kurdish fighters in Syria battling IS
]]>
They had not been paid "a penny" for their exploits, though they had been "treated like royalty" by some of the Kurdish troops, the men said.
And the former soldiers gave a detailed account of their time in Iraq and Syria, explaining that they had travelled to fight IS militants because they had "zero tolerance for terrorism".
Describing what had prompted them to travel, Mr Read said the beheading of British aid convoy volunteer Alan Henning had been the final straw.
"Alan Henning - aid worker, British - put him on his hands and knees and cut his head off, you know what I mean," Mr Read said.
"Can you really find justification in sitting back here and doing nothing?"
Mr Read, 24, and Mr Hughes, 26, revealed that organising the trip had been quite simple with a "phone call here or there" and some communication over Skype.
They were screened by simply having their Facebook posts checked and ensuring that social media friends were not IS supporters, Mr Read said.
The pair said that after arriving in Irbil, northern Iraq, they were transported via the Kurdish HQ to the front line in Syria.
During the journey the Britons said they had no idea whether they had landed in a trap.
"I'm not going to lie, this was one of the most frightening processes you can go through, you know, the paranoia: through the roof," Mr Read said.
"You get picked up by a guy who doesn't speak English, so straight away there's a language barrier.
Video:UK Needs 'Stronger Foreign Policy'
"When we got to the safe house... it's sort of dodgy-looking, so you think 'I don't really like this'. At one point, you think 'is this the point I'm going to get handed over?'"
After getting a uniform and weapons, Mr Hughes said they eventually "rocked up" on the frontline to an old schoolhouse covered in mud.
They arrived to cheers from their Kurdish comrades, were plied with chai (tea) and cigarettes, and met three other Westerners who had joined the fight.
During their three weeks on the front line, their duties included terrifying night patrols where it was the "blackest black... like being in a cave with no lights".
"You are left staring into the pitch black, hoping no one sees you first," Mr Read said.
The Britons said they had hatched a plan to shoot each dead rather than being caught and paraded on television as hostages.
"We wouldn't get captured, bottom line, we couldn't get captured, we're not getting our heads paraded on YouTube, we made that vow before we went out.
"Everybody out there is carrying a round for themselves. Nobody wants to be captured by IS. Nobody wants to end up on YouTube getting their head cut off.
"So for us, as harsh as it sounds, it's probably the better way to go. It's the old saying, 'you keep a round for each other'."
Describing their final day, Mr Read told how the pair had been out on patrol towards a nearby village where IS militants had been holed up.
"All of a sudden we just got opened up on. Quite a lot of small arms (...) quite a lot of AKs and they were quite close.
1/12
Gallery: Peshmergas On The Front Line In The Battle Against Islamic State
Kurdish Peshmerga forces sweep the Bakirta village near the town of Makhmur, south of Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan
Members of Kurdish "peshmerga" troops ride a vehicle during an intensive security deployment on the outskirts of Diyala, northeast of Baghdad
]]>
"There were rounds coming in and they were really close - they were pinging and they were bouncing, whizzing over your head - obviously it's a very distinctive noise.
"There was a lot of shouting, a lot of screaming, a lot of F-words being dropped."
The pair said they were forced to flee through a village which was "littered with IEDs (improvised explosive devices)" before returning to base.
"We eventually made it out but this was a real eye-opener - this is how these people were going to act - there's something more that needs to be done there."
They returned to Britain last week and were questioned by anti-terrorism officers for six hours at Heathrow airport before being released.
Asked whether they would return to Syria, Mr Read said: "I'd like to think we would have the opportunity to go back."
But he added: "I'm unsure on the political stance - I'm not sure whether our Government would appreciate us going back."
:: You can watch an extended special report on the IS-fighting Britons at 2.30pm, 4.30pm and 8.30pm, today, as well as a half-hour special programme at 9.30pm.
Watch the report on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 132 and Freesat channel 202.
Recommended by Outbrain Recommended by Outbrain
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Breaking News: British Soldier Torture Claims 'Lies' - Inquiry
Former UK Soldiers 'Compelled' To Fight IS
Breaking News: IS Flag Student Guilty Of Syria Terror Plan
