The Telegraph Tracks Down Three British Schoolgirls Who Joined Islamic State

At the Telegraph UK, "Found: The Bethnal Green schoolgirls who ran away to Syria":

Exclusive: The Telegraph tracks down the three teenage runaways who left London in February to join Islamic State.

The three British schoolgirls who ran away from home to join the Islamic State group in Syria were kept under close watch in a compound for widows and would-be jihadi brides while their loyalty to the movement was tested, The Telegraph has learned.

Shamima Begum, 15, Kadiza Sultana, 16, and Amira Abase, 15, who ran away from home in February, spent their first months in Isil’s caliphate under lock and key in an apartment in the jihadists’ stronghold city of Raqqa.

The schoolgirls, from Bethnal Green, east London, were put in the care of a woman handler known as Um Laith – “Mother of the Lion” – tasked with “purifying their Western minds” by instilling the practices of Isil’s hardline version of sharia law.

In their first months in the city the girls were not trusted by Raqqa’s Isil rulers, and were forbidden to leave their apartment without their chaperone, according to activists in the city who have monitored the girls’ movements.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, an Isil emir (leader) with knowledge of the girls’ whereabouts confirmed to this paper that Isil had been “keeping the girls together” and “testing them”. “Until now we don’t trust them,” he said.

But eight weeks ago, activists from Eye on the Homeland, an anti-Isil opposition movement in the city, shot video footage – given to the Telegraph – that they claim shows at least two of the girls shopping for groceries.

A copy of the video was previously passed around, including to other media outlets, by middle men who did not know the significance of the footage. But this paper was able to speak to the organisation, who then divulged the full story of what it showed and how they obtained it.

“[Our men] were watching the compound when they saw three covered women coming from their apartment,” said Ahmad Abdulkader, the director of Eye on the Homeland. “Only they and Um Laith live in this apartment, and they hadn’t had visitors.”

Three women disguised by the face-covering niqab and black abaya walked down the stairs and left the building. The activists said that, because previously the girls had not been allowed out alone, they believed that one of the three women was Um Laith.

“We don’t know this for sure. It is possible that after more than two months of living with them, they were trusted enough to go out alone together,” Mr Abdulkader said, adding that such behaviour would be out of character.

The activists followed close behind, using a hidden camera to capture the women on film. The two-minute undercover video, passed exclusively to the Telegraph by Eye on the Homeland, follows the girls as they walk through Raqqa’s streets.

One of the girls is wearing trainers similar to those worn by 15-year-old Amira in CCTV footage shot at a Turkish bus station in February as the girls waited to be taken to Syria.

The footage suggests an easy relationship between the three. The trainer-clad girl leads the group, a black shopping bag in her left hand, and a Kalashnikov automatic rifle slung over her right shoulder.

The girl behind her carries a tray of eggs. A third brings up the rear, carrying another heavy black plastic shopping bag of groceries.

Mr Abdulkader said: “It’s normal that they should be carrying a gun. No foreign fighter, not even the women, leaves the house without a weapon. They fear attacks from opposition cells inside the city.”

Lots more at the link.