The British newspaper Telegraph has quoted Turkish intelligence sources as saying that Shaima Begum, 15, Khadija Sultana, 16, and Amira Abbasi, 15, are three British girls who fled from London last week and crossed the Turkish-Syrian border to join the Islamic State, and that their families pleaded for them to return home.
The newspaper said the three girls, who are students of the Bethnal Green Academy in east London, took Turkish Airlines to Istanbul and went from there by car to the border town of Tal Abyad that is controlled by IS on Friday.
A Turkish intelligence source told the newspaper that the Turkish authorities believe the girls met a member of IS in Istanbul who is responsible for helping foreigners who want to join the organization.
According to the Turkish source, the girls stayed in Istanbul for two days before they went to the border. They left London last Tuesday at 8 am from Gatwick Airport.
The newspaper Scotland Yard, Turkish Airlines and the British Border Guard were not informed that the girls went to Syria, believing Shaima Begum used her sister’s passport.
Richard Walton, head of the Counter Terrorism Command, said he could have stopped them had he been notified.
The newspaper pointed out that the girls may have traveled to catch up with their friend Aqsa Mahmood who left Glasgow in Scotland to marry an IS militant in Syria in 2013.
It said the police had investigated the three girls when their friend Mahmood went to Syria but the Counter Terrorism Command did not think they would follow her.
The British newspaper The Independent quoted Mahmood’s family as saying that it is ashamed that Mahmood persuaded the three girls to join IS, as at least one of them was in contact with her on Twitter.
The family also said Mohmood has a Twitter account named Om Laith that she uses to attract newcomers to IS.
During the last Friday prayers at the Whitechapel Mosque east of London, the congregation was asked to give any information that could help the Counter Terrorism Command reach the three girls.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
