Girls married off to militants

TRIPOLI: Families in a stronghold of the Islamic State militant group in Libya were being forced to marry off girls as young as 12 to jihadists in exchange for protection, local doctors and networks have claimed.

Activists say the number of underage marriages is rising in the city of Derna as foreign fighters continue to infiltrate the area after jihadists pledged allegiance to Islamic State in October.

Clinics are also recording growing numbers of miscarriages and complications during labour and birth, as children are taken by fighters as second or third wives.

One local gynaecologist said girls were so young, they often had no idea what was happening to them.

“We see girls who are bleeding heavily from their genital area. Some of them don’t know what sex is – they come into the clinic playing with their dolls.”

An activist in Derna said child weddings were most common in the poorer neighbourhoods.

He said families there had come to perceive marrying their daughters off as a way of protecting them from worse fates.

“It’s mainly about power and protection – you notice a change in the status of the families,” he said.

“Before they would hide but after the girls are married to the jihadist commanders, they move more easily about town. Some of them get nice cars and nice houses, too. They see it as a way of protecting their girls from something worse.”

Meanwhile, Britain’s Telegraph newspaper reported yesterday that three British jihadi brides were on the run from Islamic State.

The girls, thought to be aged around 16, were married off to militants but have since been reported missing, with the terrorist group now searching for them. – The Independent