Pictured: Childhood West Midlands friends who travelled to Syria for terrorist fight

Mohammed Nahin Ahmed and Yusuf Zubair Sarwar, both 22, from the Handsworth area of Birmingham, spent eight months in the war-torn country last year after contacting Islamic extremists from the UK.

In May last year the men purchased one-way tickets to Turkey and later went on to cross the Syrian border.

The friends – who have known each other since their days at secondary school – left home in May last year, telling their parents they were going on a holiday to Turkey.

Sarwar had convinced his family the trip was organised by the university where he was a part-time computer science student.

He even designed a fake leaflet to make his plans look genuine.

The pair boarded a coach for Heathrow on May 14 but had left a tell-tale trail by booking and paying for tickets online seven days earlier.

CCTV film showed them arriving at the Premier Inn near the airport and leaving early the next morning. Overnight Ahmed trimmed his beard and shaved his head believing this would make him stand out less in a crowd.

Shortly afterwards his mother found a handwritten note explaining that the real reason for the journey was to engage in 'jihad' with a group called Kataib Al Muhajireen.

He also left instructions to cancel his mobile phone contract and money to settle outstanding debts.

Mrs Sarwar took the letter to police and reported her son missing.

When the friends returned to the UK after eight months away, officers from the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit were waiting at Heathrow to arrest them.

At London's Woolwich Crown Court today, they each admitted one count of engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorism acts contrary to Section 5 of the Terrorism Act.

Traces of military grade explosives were found on their clothing and pictures on their camera showed them brandishing weapons.

Detectives used satellite imaging to establish from the photographs that the men had been in and around Aleppo – one of the main conflict zones.

The police investigation also showed that Ahmed had planned to travel for 'jihad' for more than a year.

The unemployed former postal worker had considered going to Yemen and had sought advice from a fighter in Syria and from extremists in Denmark and Sweden.

Assistant Chief Constable Marcus Beale, senior officer for counter terrorism in the West Midlands, said today: "These young men went to considerable lengths to hide their plans from their families, who have since suffered a great deal of distress.

"It's not easy to know everything that a family member is doing all of the time, but we encourage parents to hold a healthy interest and curiosity into who their children mix with and who seems to hold a strong influence over them.

"Crucially, if families are worried that a member is thinking of travelling to Syria it is very important that they tell the authorities as soon as possible.

"The police and other agencies can offer support to help safeguard those who are vulnerable to radicalisers and the sooner we can intervene the better chance we have of preventing young people from becoming embroiled in criminal behaviour.

"Police can't do this alone. We need a whole community effort." The pair will be sentenced at a later date.

There has been at least one recent case of an individual from the West Midlands who had travelled overseas in connection with alleged terrorism where the Crown Prosecution Service has ruled there was insufficient evidence to charge the person with involvement in terrorism.

Det Insp Adam Gough said: "It all depends what the person has done. It is our job to gather the evidence.

"We do not lie or mislead the families.

"They know that we have got to investigate those who are suspected of being involved in terrorism."