Does providing first aid to ISIS militants constitute terrorism?

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Counterterrorism officials are currently debating as to how to deal with nine British students who were studying medicine in Sudan, when they decided to travel to Syria to work as medics for the Islamic State (ISIS). Are they terrorists? Have they even committed an offense?

The way in which officials deal with this latest group of Westerners joining ISIS, should they chose to return to the United Kingdom, will serve to encourage or discourage others who are contemplating joining the fight in Syria and northern Iraq. “It’s a difficult judgment call. It really does depend on the nature of their involvement and whether it constitutes a form of terrorist activity,” a British counterterrorism official told the Guardian.

According to the U.K. Home Office, participating in a foreign conflict could be an offense under criminal and anti-terrorism laws. Further clarifying, an official added that “fighting in a foreign war is not automatically an offense, but will depend on the nature of the conflict and the individual’s own activities.” With this understanding, Britons could possibly travel to Syria for a few months and return home without fear of prosecution.

According to HomeLand security News Wire , British police have made an effort to distinguish between those who join ISIS in order to become combatants, and girls who join in order to become jihadi wives and homemakers for the fighting men.

Just a few weeks ago, Metropolitan police head of counterterrorism, Mark Rowley, told members of parliament on the home affairs committee that the three London schoolgirls who went to Syria would not be prosecuted, if they returned, because there is no evidence they had committed any terrorist offense. These girls would be different from someone “running around in northern Iraq and Syria with Kalashnikovs” and who later apologized for committing terrorist offenses, Rowley explained.

Intelligence experts are aware that this perspective on Britons who travel to join ISIS could be used by returning fighters hiding under the cloak of humanitarian work.