Isil widow ‘desperate’ to return to Britain

A BRITISH woman and her five young children who left the UK to join Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) in Syria are now stranded in Turkey and desperate to come home after her husband was killed fighting with the militants.

Shukee Begum is believed to have left her Manchester home with her family some time in the past 12 months to live alongside her husband, a jihadist and a British national, in Isil’s self declared capital of Raqqa.

The widowed woman, of Somali origin, and her children, aged between one and 12, are in hiding in Turkey after they were transferred through a chain of people-smugglers out of Isil-held territory.

Ahmad Abdulkader, an activist with Eye on the Homeland, a Turkey-based anti-Isil group, which was involved in the transfer, said the family were “traumatised” by the ordeal. “They want to go home to Britain,” he said. “They can’t stay here in Turkey. They believe they will be targeted by Isil.”

A British Government spokesman in London confirmed to The Daily Tele

graph that consular assistance was being provided to the woman.

He said: “All relevant information has been shared with the Turkish au- thorities and we continue to work closely with them on this case.”

It is unclear whether Mrs Begum would face terror charges if she returned to the UK.

American hostage Kayla Mueller was raped repeatedly by Isil leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the terrorist group’s leader, her parents have been told.

Mueller was taken captive in 2013 while volunteering as an aid worker in Syria. Her death was announced in February. She was 26 years old.

Her parents say US officials told them Baghdadi took her against her will as his “wife” and that she was also subjected to torture.