AIR CORPS WOMAN ‘IS IRISH ISIS BRIDE’

Mother of one detained in Syria as suspected terror group member

A FORMER female member of the Irish Air Corps is believed to have been detained in Syria on suspicion of Isis membership.

The Irish woman, who has an infant with her, is one of tens of thousands of people who have escaped the Isis enclave of Baghouz and made it to a camp in the north of the country.

Those in the camp who are suspected of Isis membership are being held for questioning. The authorities here are trying to confirm if the detained woman is the same person who quit the Defence Forces in 2011, before becoming radicalised and moving to Syria in 2015.

RTÉ last night reported that this woman had worked on the Government jet during her time in the Air Corps, but had never flown the plane.

There is ‘no evidence’ she had become radicalised while in the Defence Forces. It is understood she married a Muslim man in Ireland before leaving for Syria in

2015. However, that relationship broke down and she remarried while in Syria. Her second husband, and the father of her child, is believed to be an Isis fighter. He is believed to have died a number of months ago.

The gardaí made contact yesterday with the family of the former Air Corps member to offer assistance. However, security sources stressed last night that no Irish citizen has made contact with the Government here or has sought consular assistance.

The Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed to RTÉ last night that an Irish citizen was detained in Syria.

A spokesperson said: ‘Appropriate consular assistance is provided to all Irish citizens where it is possible to do so.’

The existence of the Irish woman who has been arrested emerged in recent days when a woman who claimed to be British, but who spoke with an Irish accent, appeared on ITV news in the UK.

She said the scenes she had left behind in Baghouz were very difficult.

‘The people don’t have food,’ she told the reporter. ‘They are struggling. Everything is expensive and I don’t know how they are going to keep living. Morale is low, I suppose.

‘Some are strong. It’s like a rollercoaster. Some want to

Enticed to Syria by propaganda

leave. Others don’t want to leave. Some are hungry, some are not hungry.’

She said she converted to Islam seven years ago and was enticed to Syria by Isis propaganda.

‘You see propaganda,’ she said. ‘You want Islam, you want to come and live in Muslim country. No smoking, no drinking, no prostitution, no anything like this. And you want clean life.’

Asked if she thought Isis’s time is up, the woman, who calls herself ‘Umrah Kia’, replied: ‘Not over yet.’

It has been claimed she now wishes to return to Europe, although it is not clear how easy this process might be.

In February, Leo Varadkar appeared to indirectly criticise the UK’s handling of the then breaking Isis Bride case of Shamini Begum.

He said it was ‘bad practice’ to revoke someone’s citizenship, leaving them to be ‘somebody else’s problem’.

The UK, at the time, had just revoked the citizenship of the teenager, who fled London aged 15 in 2015 to join Isis.

Asked if Ireland would take a similar approach in such circumstances, the Taoiseach said it would have to be dealt with on a case by case basis, but he would be ‘loath’ to revoke someone’s citizenship.

‘That’s going to depend on the individual circumstances,’ he said. ‘We think we may only have one Irish citizen [in Isis]. It may be as few as one.’

In a media interview in 2011, a female member of the Defence Forces talked about how she had converted to Islam and planned to quit the army. Despite ‘great support’ from the Defence Forces regarding her conversion to Islam, she said she was now planning on leaving ‘because my role as a Muslim woman is to be a housewife, or to get a job working with other women. Working with men is not a good thing for a Muslim woman’.

She admitted that she previously enjoyed a wild lifestyle. ‘I did it all – the drink, drugs, smoking, everything.’

After seeking spiritual fulfilment in lots of different areas, she said she became impressed by some Muslim women she met in her home town.

This was despite having initially been wary of Muslims.

‘I’d see them and think: “bombers”.’ But she added that as she got to know Muslim women she decided to convert. She added she sometimes missed her old life.

‘I think every now and then that I’d just like to be out for the night drinking and clubbing and going a bit mad like I used to. But, of course, I’d never do it. I wouldn’t want to offend Allah.’

Last night, a spokesman for the Minister of Justice said: ‘Minister Flanagan is aware of the reports. However, it would

‘Drink, drugs... everything’

not be appropriate to comment on the detail of security matters, or indeed on individual cases.

‘The Minister has stated that protecting the State and the people from terrorism and supporting international peace and security are amongst the highest priorities for the Government.’

Yesterday, a report by Reuters news agency stated that female Isis members who had fled Baghouz have tried to assault moderate Muslim women staying at refugee camps.

The Isis members have deemed the moderates ‘infidels’ and tried to impose their views on them, even as the jihadists are facing territorial defeat, Reuters reported.

‘They yell at us that we are infidels for showing our faces,’ said a Syrian woman at al-Hol camp, where women and children were moved from Baghouz.

The Baghouz enclave is Islamic State’s last shred of populated territory after years of attacks have rolled back its ultra-radical ‘caliphate’ in Syria and Iraq.

But its impending defeat is confronting the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces with the problem of what to do with growing numbers of people, many of them Isis followers, emerging from the enclave. Most have been sent to al-Hol camp, already overcrowded with uprooted Syrians and Iraqis.