Five London boys ‘in plot to fight for IS’

Schoolchildren arrested ‘as they planned to flee to Syria and Iraq’

FIVE London teenagers were being questioned by anti-terror police today on suspicion of planning to flee Britain to fight for Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

The five — including a 15-year-old schoolboy — were arrested yesterday at homes across the capital.

C ounter-terror detec tives are investigating alleged plans by the teenagers, four of whom are schoolchildren, to travel to join the jihadist terror group after communicating with each other online.

In a co-ordinated operation early yesterday two youths, aged 16 and 17, were held at separate addresses in south London while two others, aged 17 and 19, were arrested at an address in west London.

A boy aged 15 was arrested last night in east London, and another property in Lambeth was also searched in connection with the operation.

Detectives are examining exactly how the teenagers c ame into contact.

The arrests came after Scotland Yard’s Counter Terrorism Command first searched the teenagers’ addresses in London last month.

Detectives are thought to have recovered a number of phones and computers during those raids.

The Met said the five were arrested on suspicion of “the preparation of terrori st acts” and were being questioned today at a central London police station.

Detectives are examining if any of the five had made contact with jihadists in Syria and if the group had hatched a plot to travel online.

Three London schoolgirls ran away from home in February 2015 to join Islamic State.

Shamima Begum and Amira Abase, both 15 at the time, and Khadiza Sultana, then 16, all fellow pupils at Bethnal Green Academy, disappeared from their homes in east London and were pictured together at Gat wick before they flew to Turkey, where they crossed the border into war-torn Syria.

Khadiza is thought to have been killed in an air strike in Syria last year but the fate of the other two girls is unknown.

Today claims emerged that a Briton fighting with Islamic State blew himself up in a suicide mission against troops advancing o n we s t e r n Mosul.

The terror group said a man using the name Abu Zakariya al-Britani was one of two fighters who died attacking Iraqi troops in the battle for the city. @_jdavenport

On their way: Bethnal Green schoolgirls Amira Abase, left, Khadiza Sultana, centre, and Shamima Begum were caught on CCTV as they walked through Gatwick Airport on their way in 2015 to catch a flight to Turkey. They then crossed the border with Syria...