BRITAIN is to provide a home for up to 20,000 refugees from Syria over the next four and a half years, David Cameron announced today.

The Prime Minister told the House of Commons the UK would live up to its moral responsibility towards those forced from their homes by the forces of president Bashar Assad and the Islamic State (IS) terror group.

He added Britain should "look at" vulnerable groups such as Christians and Yazidis as part of its resettlement efforts - but insisted United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR, would be primarily responsible for identifying which Syrians to take from refugee camps in countries neighbouring the war-ravaged nation.

Mr Cameron also revealed two British citizens fighting for IS in Syria, 20-year-old Reyaad Khan from Cardiff and 26-year-old Ruhul Amin, who grew up in Aberdeen, were killed in the same RAF drone attack on August 21.

Khan is believed to have gone to fight in Syria in late 2013 and appeared in an Isis propaganda video entitled "There Is No Life Without Jihad" with a Kalashnikov assault rifle. He was targeted while travelling in a vehicle in Raqqah, Syria.

Amin, who also featured alongside Khan in the recruitment video, was born in Bangladesh and grew up in Aberdeen before reportedly moving with his family to Leicester.

In July 2014 he boasted on ITV's Good Morning Britain: "I'm going to stay and fight until the (caliphate) is established or I die."

Computer hacker Junaid Hussain, 21, from Birmingham, was also killed on August 24 in a US drone strike. He was said to have been number three on the Pentagon's "kill list" of IS targets.

It is believe he fled to Syria in 2013 and in June this year was linked to a plot to attack an Armed Forces Day in south London.

The plan to explode a pressure cooker bomb was reportedly foiled after he unwittingly recruited an undercover reporter from The Sun to carry it out.

Pressure to admit more Syrians has grown since publication of photographs of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi, who drowned with his mother and brother trying to cross from Turkey to Greece by boat.

Mr Cameron told the Commons that Britain would take in vulnerable refugees from camps in the region and not those who have crossed the Mediterranean into Europe in their thousands over recent months.

"In doing so, we will continue to show the world that this country is a country of extraordinary compassion, always standing up for our own values and helping those in need."

MPs and councillors from across the region continue offer refugees sanctuary in their areas.

Darlington Borough Council led the way on Friday when leader Bill Dixon said it would welcome ten refugee families to the borough.

Tonight he said: "As ever, the people of Darlington have been very generous and many offers of support have already been made. We are also waiting to hear the details from the Government about how help will be co-ordinated nationally."

Meanwhile, Liberal Democrat councillors have written to Simon Henig, Labour leader of Durham County Council, asking it to accept 150 refugee families.

Durham City MP Roberta Blackman-Woods has also asked for "a commitment to take a number of families seeking asylum".

It is thought the Labour group discussed the issue today (Monday, September 7). On Friday, Cllr Henig said the council would do all it could to alleviate the situation.

Leading politicians in the Tees Valley have also called for the area to show the way as a City of Sanctuary. Stockton councillor Dave Rose, who is helping lead the cross-authority initiative, said: "We're prepared to step up and help save many hundreds of lives by taking in families escaping from a desperate war-torn country."

Carl Les, leader of North Yorkshire County Council, said it was ready to play its part in providing support and will be holding a meeting with the Home Office and district council colleagues shortly.