Three British jihadi brides ‘on run after escaping from Islamic State’
THREE British girls have escaped the clutches of Islamic State in Iraq and are on the run, it was claimed last night.
There are hopes the fugitives could be among the group of teenagers from the same London school who left the UK to become ‘jihadi brides’.
A huge search was under way yesterday after three youngsters went missing in the occupied city of Mosul, according to an anonymous online report.
A blogger, known only as Mosul Eye, said militants at checkpoints were looking for them, adding: ‘It is believed that those girls have escaped.’
The distraught father of 15-year-old London pupil Sharmeena Uddin said he hoped his daughter was among the trio said to have fled from the barbaric jihadis.
Mohammed Uddin said he was desperately seeking information from counter-terrorist police about the teenager, who left home in December and was believed to be in the terrorist stronghold of Raqqa in Syria.
Speaking from his East London home last night, Mr Uddin, 38, said: ‘I hope that it is Sharmeena because she’s 16 at the end of the month. Maybe it’s her. I hope it is.’ The claim that the girls have escaped from Islamic State, also known as Isil, was released on the Facebook page of Mosul Eye.
The anonymous blogger, who has been posting messages since July last year, aims to ‘communicate what’s happening in Mosul to the rest of the world’.
It details the activities of terrorists in English and in Arabic, including missile strikes by coalition forces.
On May 2, he posted: ‘Three girls, (Foreigners – British) married to Isil militants, reported missing, and Isil announced to all its checkpoints to search for them. It is believed that those girls have escaped.’
In a later post he added: ‘The latest info I got on them is they are still on the run, but still in Mosul, and Isil is thoroughly searching for them and hasn’t captured them yet.
‘They are Brits, not immigrants, and they are very young teens (around 16 years old). That’s all I have about them for now.’
More than 600 Britons – among them 20 teenage girls – are believed to have travelled to Syria and Iraq to join Islamic State, which occupies large parts of both countries. Sharmeena abandoned her father in December, heading for Syria.
She was followed in February by three schoolmates at East London’s Bethnal Green Academy – Kadiza Sultana, 16, Shamima Begum, 15, and Amira Abase, 15. In March, a High Court judge confiscated the passports of a further four pupils at the school after concerns were raised by the local council. The girls and others have claimed in online posts that they want to live under Sharia Law and play their part in setting up an Islamic nation. But there is growing evi- dence that young women and other jihadis are becoming disenchanted with the brutal ‘society’ they have joined.
Last month two jihadi brides who escaped from Islamic State’s female police force said violent punishments were dished out to those who did not obey strict rules.
‘Searching at checkpoints’