2 UK Girls Reportedly Marry ’ISIL’ Militants in Syria, Have ’No Intention to Come Home Soon’

Local Editor

Two of three British schoolgirls who slipped off to Syria on their own had married "ISIL" militants, their families' lawyer stated. The teens said their marriage ceremony was approved by "ISIL" leadership.

The girls, Shamima Begum, 15, Kadiza Sultana, 16, and Amira Abase, 15, allegedly made a one way journey from East London to Syria back in February to join "ISIL".

Two of the teens contacted their families in London via phone and social media to say that they had been married to "ISIL" militants. However, it wasn't revealed exactly which of the girls in the trio had been married.

Furthermore, the girls, all students of Bethnal Green academy in East London, said they had been separated and were now living near Raqqa, Syria. According to the teenagers, they are now with the men whom they married.

The marriage "has caused a lot of distress," Tasnime Akunjee, a lawyer representing the families of the girls said, "It entrenches their lives in Syria, rather than in Britain. It erodes significantly hopes that they will come back."

Moreover, footage showed the girls while they were shopping in a highly-guarded "ISIL"-compound.

However, Akunjee said that at the time the footage was recorded "two of the girls are known to be married."
"The families think the video is unlikely to be them. All three are living apart and those who are married are under the aegis of their husbands and are unlikely to be under the aegis of some woman leader," the lawyer added.

Nonetheless, the girls prepared for their "ISIL" trip in advance, booking tickets and carefully planning their journey.

In May reports emerged that one of the girls contacted her family in the UK to confirm she was "healthy, safe and well," but that she and the other girls had "no intention" of returning home soon. The two other girls reportedly contacted their family via the internet.

Shortly after the girls disappeared, their families blamed police for failing to deliver a warning letter about a boy from the same school who had reportedly run away to join "ISIL" in Syria. The parents said that for some reason the letter had been given to the girls, instead of directly to them. The girls never passed the letters on to their parents.

After the girls joined the militants in February, Prime Minister David Cameron announced that all teenagers boarding flights to Turkey could be challenged by airlines if they were traveling alone, and could be asked if they planned to join "ISIL".

Consequently, UK authorities believed that, as of June 2015, about 700 Britons had joined "ISIL" militants in Syria and Iraq. Approximately 200 of those had returned to the UK.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team