British mother jailed for extremist posts on social media

A British court has sentenced a woman to five years and three months in jail for posting extremist information on Facebook and WhatsApp.

Kingston Crown Court Thursday heard that the 35-year-old Runa Khan, a mother of six children, had reposted a web article entitled "Raising Mujahid Children" in September 2013, instructing mothers to prepare their children for radical acts.

A judge said the article was like "a manual in encouraging women to carry out jihad".

Investigators also found that Khan had taken pictures of her underage children holding a toy gun and a sword.

She had also expressed her intention to travel to Syria.

Investigators said Khan had hoped that her son would one day become a "jihadist fighter", and employed social media as a tool to spread terrorism.

In August, Britain upgraded its international terrorism threat level from "substantial" to "severe," the second highest of five possible threat ranks.The British Home Office also introduced a series of tougher counter-terror measures earlier this year to tackle international terrorism.