British Police Hunt for Three Teens Headed to Join ISIS

Metropolitan Police(LONDON) — British Police have issued an urgent appeal looking for three schoolgirls after they were reported missing Friday, believed to be heading to Syria via Turkey to join Islamist fighters.

The three school friends from East London’s Bethnal Green, aged between 15 and 16, left their homes before 8 a.m. and met at Gatwick airport in London where they boarded a Turkish Airlines flight, according to a police news release.

“We are reaching out to the girls using the Turkish media and social media,” Britain’s Counter-Terrorism Commander Richard Walton said, “in the hope that they hear our messages, hear our concerns for their safety and have the courage to return now, back to their families who are so worried about them.”

The U.S. Senior Adviser for Foreign Fighters, Ambassador Thomas Krajeski, said during a news briefing Friday that young girls traveling to Syria and Iraq were being considered as problematic as those traveling to fight.

“Fighters include people not only picking up a gun, but also going to support Islamists, in some way, including young women who have been attracted to the fight for various reasons and in some cases children,” he said, adding the prospect of fighters returning to their home countries to conduct attacks is of “great concern.”

Krajeski also acknowledged the difficulty of controlling the Turkish-Syrian border. “This is a very difficult border to police,” he said, “The most effective way to do it is to provide border officials with the best possible information. I believe Turks are committed to increasing checks and controls of incoming travellers and border controls.”

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