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This footage purports to show Reyaad Khan (c) Nasser Muthana (r) from Wales
UK police will have to deal with the threat of British fighters returning from Syria for "many years", a top Scotland Yard officer has told the BBC.
Met Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick said the conflict represented a "long-term" terrorist threat.
She said young British Muslims might commit violence on their return.
Her comments came after an apparent internet recruitment video for jihadists in Syria and Iraq featured several Britons.
The BBC understands one of the men in the video is Reyaad Khan, 20, from Cardiff.
It comes after the father of aspiring medical student Nasser Muthana, also 20 and from Cardiff, spoke of his shock at seeing his son in the video.
The film was posted by internet accounts linked to militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis), which has a presence in Syria and is engaged in fierce fighting with Iraqi government forces.
'Face consequences'Speaking to BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend, Ms Dick - who is currently head of specialist operations including counter terrorism at the Met - warned Britain would face "the consequences" of the conflict in Syria "for years to come".
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Ex-defence secretary Liam Fox: "It's a problem that's going to be with us for a long time"
But Ms Dick would not be drawn on the extent to which UK police have already had to confront security threats from British jihadists fighting in the Middle East.
She said that until a few weeks ago police believed around 460 Britons had gone to fight in Syria, but said the figure could now have climbed to around 500.
Former MI6 director of global counter-terrorism Richard Barrett told Sky News's Murnaghan programme that as many as 300 radicalised young men had already returned to the UK.
More than 50 people have been arrested in the UK since 2013 for alleged Syria-related offences.
Mr Barrett said: "It's an absolute nightmare [for the security agencies] because with such numbers there's no way that they have the resources to be able to look at all of them.
"So they have to prioritise and to prioritise is difficult. Clearly, some of them will have come to their attention before they went to Iraq so they may be at the top of the list.
"But others are probably completely unknown and maybe even their return is unknown and will only come to light later."
Retired British army colonel Stephen Thomas said he believed there were "so many radicalised Islamic people in the UK" that the security services could not keep track of them all.
BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner said the big question was whether the situation abroad was going to "bounce back here to the UK".
He told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show: "Although the British government has said 'We're not going to get involved militarily' in Iraq, we are fooling ourselves if we think that we are going to be immune from any backlash.
"The West is seen as being all part of one thing by these jihadists... We're all going to get it, if we are seen as being taking sides as combatants."
Former Defence Secretary Liam Fox said it would be a mistake for politicians to be reticent to get involved in Iraq because of any threat to the UK.
"Remember, the West is seen as a single entity. There are those who say 'If we don't get involved, if we hunker down, then we'll be fine, there'll be no backlash'.
"That is utterly wrong because the jihadists don't hate us because of what we do, they hate us because of who we are."
Mr Fox said the question had to be asked whether the security services had adequate resources for an increased threat.
He said there should be more surveillance, more manpower and more money, if required.
Mr Fox added: "At heart it's an ideological battle. We have to realise we have to win the ideological battle as well."
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis)
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Isis fighters have been pushing towards Iraq's capital, Baghdad
Isis grew out of an al-Qaeda-linked organisation in Iraq
- Estimated 10,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria
- Joined in its offensives by other Sunni militant groups, including Saddam-era officers and soldiers, and disaffected Sunni tribal fighters
- Exploits standoff between Iraqi government and the minority Sunni Arab community, which complains that Shia Prime Minister Nouri Maliki is monopolising power
- Led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, an obscure figure regarded as a battlefield commander and tactician
Nasser's father, Ahmed Muthana, said his son left the UK to fight in Syria in November, telling BBC Wales that his 17-year-old younger son, Aseel, had also travelled to the country.
Mr Muthana said he was "heartbroken" Nasser had left the UK to fight in Syria. He said he feared his sons would "come back to me in a coffin".
He described his son - who had been offered places by four universities to study medicine - as quiet, well-educated and intelligent.
He said another man in the video, which cannot be verified, was someone he recognised from Cardiff.
'Potentially vulnerable'Alyas Karmani, an imam and independent city councillor in Bradford, said the government should take some responsibility for the issue.
He said: "We are not reaching this group of young people who are potentially vulnerable to this radicalisation. And one of the reasons is because a lot of agencies that were providing that counter messaging about two or three years ago had their funding cut by the government."
Madeleine Moon, Labour MP for Bridgend, said it was not necessarily the case that young British Muslims who had joined the fight in Syria would return and commit acts of violence at home.
Ms Moon, a member of the Commons defence select committee, added that "we have to make sure that we... don't alienate ourselves from the Muslim community".
South Wales Police said they were "increasingly concerned" about the number of young people travelling to Syria, but the issue was not unique to Cardiff or Wales.
"The advice is to avoid all travel to Syria - anyone who does travel is putting themselves in considerable danger," they said in a statement, warning those who engaged in terror-related activities would be prosecuted.
Meanwhile, an estimated 5,000 young people from across the UK are attending a residential event in Surrey this weekend organised by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association to rally against radical Islam and pledge their loyalty to Britain.
Have you been affected by the issues raised in this story? You can send us your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk using the subject line "Isis".
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