Runaway’s call:

SHAMIMA BEGUM – the London teenager who left the UK to join the Islamic State in Syria – has given birth, her family have been told.

Their lawyer released a statement saying Ms Begum and her child – a boy – are believed to be in “good health”.

Ms Begum, who was found last week in a Syrian refugee camp, has said she wants to return to the UK.

The 19-year-old – who has given birth to a baby boy – accepted she may have made a mistake but said that living under IS had made her “stronger, tougher”.

Ms Begum said she had been attracted to go to Syria after seeing news and videos on the internet which emphasised the role of family, adding that her biggest priority now was her son.

But she admitted she knew the group was carrying out beheadings and executions before she left, adding that she was “OK with it at first”.

Asked if she felt she made a mistake travelling to Syria, she said: “In a way, yes, but I don’t regret it because it’s changed me as a person. It’s made me stronger, tougher, you know.

“I married my husband, I wouldn’t have found someone like him back in the UK.

“I had my kids, I did have a good time there. It’s just that then things got harder and I couldn’t take it any more and I had to leave.”

Ms Begum was speaking next to her newborn son, who she said

she had named after her previous son who died, in accordance with her husband’s wishes.

She appealed for the public to show sympathy for “everything I’ve been through”, but acknowledged that it would be “really hard” to be rehabilitated into British society.

She said: “I’m still kind of in the mentality of planes over my head and having the emergency backpack and starving and all these things.

“It would be a really big shock to go back to the UK and start a life again.” Ms Begum said no British consulate officials had met or spoken to her, only journalists.