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Post by Admin on Feb 22, 2015 13:53:54 GMT
UK police appealed for help Friday to find three teenage girls who are missing from their homes in London and are believed to be making their way to Syria. The girls, two of them 15 and one 16, have not been seen since Tuesday, when, police say, they took a flight to Istanbul. One has been named as Shamima Begum, 15, who may be traveling under the name of 17-year-old Aklima Begum, and a second as Kadiza Sultana, 16. The third girl has not been named at the request of her family, police said.  Pictures released by police show the three girls walking together through London Gatwick Airport, carrying travel bags. They are said to be close friends who went to the same east London school. Richard Walton, of Counter Terrorism Command, said: "We are extremely concerned for the safety of these young girls and would urge anyone with information to come forward and speak to police. Our priority is the safe return of these girls to their families.  "We are reaching out to the girls using the Turkish media and social media in the hope that Shamima, Kadiza and their friend hear our messages, hear our concerns for their safety and have the courage to return now, back to their families who are so worried about them." UK police are concerned about the number of girls and young women trying to head to areas of Syria controlled by ISIS, Walton said.  "It is an extremely dangerous place and we have seen reports of what life is like for them and how restricted their lives become," he said. Besides being forced to lead a very limited life in Syria, he said, they often are denied the choice of returning home, leaving few options for their devastated families. However, if the three missing girls can be found while still in Turkey, there's a good chance they could still be brought home safely, he said.  A police statement urged anyone who thinks a family member might be planning to go to Syria to get in touch. "This is not about criminalising people it is about preventing tragedies by offering support to the young and vulnerable," it added. If the girls are headed to Syria, they would not be the first to attempt the journey. |
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Post by Admin on Feb 23, 2015 13:54:49 GMT
Officers from the Metropolitan Police have arrived in Turkey as the search continues for three schoolgirls from east London who are believed to be heading for Syria. Relatives of Shamima Begum, 15, Kadiza Sultana, 16, and Amira Abase, 15, have made emotional pleas for the teenagers to come home amid fears they may have been recruited by jihadists online.  The three girls were last seen on Tuesday morning as they left their homes, telling their families they would be out for the day. They are thought to have boarded a Turkish Airlines flight at Gatwick, which landed in Istanbul on Tuesday evening, with the intention to cross into Syria and join terror group Islamic State. Speaking at Scotland Yard, Abase Hussen, 47, said his family was "completely different now" after his daughter's disappearance. He said: "We are depressed, and it's very stressful. The message we have for Amira is to get back home. We miss you. We cannot stop crying. Please think twice. Don't go to Syria." He added that Amira had shown no sign that anything was amiss as she left home, saying she was going to a wedding. Kadiza Sultana's older sister Halima Khanom said: "Find the courage in your heart to contact us and let us know that you're safe and you're ok - that's all we ask."  One of Shamima Begum's sisters fought back tears and said the family hoped the teenager had gone to "try and talk some sense" into her friend who had already travelled to Syria. Renu Begum, 27, said: "If anybody is telling her that they're going to love her more than us, they're wrong. "Nobody else can love her more than we do because she's our baby. We just want her home." |
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Post by Admin on Feb 25, 2015 14:09:15 GMT
To her family, Aqsa Mahmood was an intelligent and popular teenager who helped care for her three younger siblings and her grandparents at her home in Scotland. She listened to Coldplay, read Harry Potter novels and drank Irn Bru, a Scottish soft drink. Though she aspired to be a pharmacist or a doctor, she left home in November 2013 to go to Syria, and the authorities now say she is one of the most active recruiters of young British women to join the Islamic State.  The authorities are investigating possible links between Mahmood, who goes by the name Umm Layth (meaning Mother of the Lion), and the disappearance last week of three teenagers from London. They, too, are believed to have traveled to Syria to join the terrorist group. The apparent trend of studious, seemingly driven young women leaving home to join violent jihadis has become disturbingly familiar. A Metropolitan Police official said Monday that one of the girls, Shamima Begum, sent a Twitter message to a woman on Feb. 15, a couple of days before they left Britain, but declined to disclose her name. Experts who track jihadi activity online, including Audrey Alexander at the International Center for the Study of Radicalization, in London, have identified that woman as Mahmood, 20, who left her home in Glasgow in November 2013. She is now thought to live in Raqqah, Syria, the de facto capital of the Islamic State, where she married a jihadi and acts as a virtual den mother offering sometimes stern advice to her peers who would follow in her footsteps. As the families of the three missing girls made tearful appeals for their daughters to return home, Mahmood’s family also issued a statement last weekend addressed to their own daughter, whom they called a “disgrace.” They said that they were “full of horror and anger” that she “may have had a role to play” in recruiting the girls for the Islamic State. Writing under the name Umm Layth, Mahmood — who is believed to be a member of the all-women militia group in Raqqa, the Al-Khanssaa brigade — told would-be wives of terrorists: “Sisters with this comes the great acceptance and hefty reality which is that this decision means we will most probably have to sooner or later hear the news of our husbands’ success, which is his shahadah [martyrdom]. “So maybe even before his death you have spent time preparing for it emotionally, but unfortunately many are not educated on what comes next.” |
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Post by Admin on May 30, 2015 5:18:28 GMT
A senior female commander from Islamic State has told Sky News she has no doubt that three London teenagers who crossed into Syria in February were groomed by a team of social media experts in Raqqa. The woman, who calls herself Um Asmah and who defected from IS just days ago, was the first person to contact foreign girls crossing the border.  Her job was to introduce the new recruits to life under Islamic State's strict and brutal regime. In her first interview, she says she was surprised by how young and naive Shamima Begum, Kadiza Sultana and Amira Abase were. The 22-year-old says it was clear that while the girls were happy, they were unprepared for living life permanently veiled.  One of the girls revealed her face to a driver and was immediately reprimanded and lectured on etiquette. Um Asmah, whose relatives are senior IS commanders, says she delivered the girls to a base in Raqqa where they are now undergoing a four-month training regime for "special missions". Foreign fighters are taught to fight and oversee missions in Syria and Iraq - but with a specific plan, now revealed for the first time, to travel back to Europe and carry out attacks there. Speaking in a secret location in Turkey, she says it is possible fighters are already being trained in Europe, but she confirmed most of the training was in Syria. She says she is unsure where the girls are now, but doubts they have been married off to IS fighters "unless they wanted to". Asked if the girls will be allowed to return home, she said they will "never" go home and are more likely to "die in Iraq or Syria". |
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Post by Admin on Aug 30, 2015 1:37:00 GMT
 A mother and her four young children who are feared to be travelling to Syria are being sought by police. The family, from London, was last seen on Tuesday morning and they were thought to have left the country later that day. Zahera Tariq, 33, and her children, aged four to 12, are believed to have travelled from London City Airport on a flight to Amsterdam in the Netherlands.  A family member contacted Scotland Yard to report them missing on Wednesday. It is now feared Ms Tariq may be considering travelling to war-torn Syria with her three sons Muhammad, Amaar and Aadid and daughter Safiyyah. There have been several previous cases in which women and children from the UK are believed to have gone to parts of Syria controlled by Islamic State.  Police have released two CCTV images of the Waltham Forest family at London City Airport in a bid to track them down. Ms Tariq is described as an Asian woman of medium build, approximately 5ft 3ins tall, with long black hair. Her oldest son, Muhammad, is 12 years old and is of medium build, approximately 5ft tall and has medium-length black hair. |
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