Family: Teen who joined IS, has baby in Syria, wants return to UK

LONDON >> The family of a British teenager who ran away to join the Islamic State group and now wants to return to the U.K. said Sunday she has given birth to a baby boy.

The family’s lawyer said 19-yearold Shamima Begum and the baby are in good health. In a recent interview with The Times newspaper, Begum said she had previously lost two babies to illness and malnutrition.

News about Begum and her desire to go back to Britain have ignited a debate in the U.K. about how to deal with citizens who joined IS and want to leave Syria now that the extremist group is on the verge of collapse.

Begum was one of a group of schoolgirls from London who went to Syria to marry IS fighters in 2015 at a time when the group’s online recruitment program lured many impressionable young people to its selfproclaimed caliphate.

“I think a lot of people should have sympathy towards me for everything I’ve been through,” she said.