Title : Ex-London schoolgirl, 19, who fled to join ISIS with two friends flees while 'nine months pregnant'
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Ex-London schoolgirl, 19, who fled to join ISIS with two friends flees while 'nine months pregnant'
'All I want to do is return to Britain': Former London schoolgirl, 19, who ran away from Britain to join ISIS with two friends is begging to return as minister says she IS allowed back but might be prosecuted
- Shamima Begum, 19, fled Bethnal Green with two friends for Syria in 2015
- She and two friends, Kadiza Sultana and Amira Abase, married foreign fighters
- They went to join Sharmeena Begum who had already travelled to Syria
- Shamima fled the final ISIS stronghold in eastern Syria and said Abase and Sharmeena Begum were still alive two weeks ago
- Do you know Shamima Begum? Email martin.robinson@mailonline.co.uk or tips@dailymail.com
Shamima Begum (pictured in her passport photo) is now 19 and is alive in Syria - she wants to return to the UK
A schoolgirl who fled London aged 15 to join ISIS has been found heavily pregnant in a refugee camp and said: 'I don't regret coming here - now all I want to do is come home to Britain'.
Shamima Begum was just 15 when she and two classmates Kadiz Sultana and Amira Abase travelled to Syria in February 2015.
Today there are calls for Begum to be barred from returning to the UK completely or arrested and prosecuted if she sets foot on British soil.
But at the time of her disappearance four years ago Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, then Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said if the girls came back they would be treated as 'victims' who were groomed online and would not be prosecuted.
800 men, women and children from Britain went to Syria and Iraq to join - but 400 returned and only around 40 have been prosecuted for terrorism offences.
Security Minister Ben Wallace today confirmed that Begum will be allowed back into Britain and will helped if she presents herself at a British consulate in Iraq or Turkey.
He said: 'British citizens have rights whoever they are but if they have gone join IS and return to the UK they can expect to be questioned and, if possible, prosecuted'.
He added: 'I think the public will be reflecting on why these people want to return to a country they said they hate'.
Mr Wallace refused to be drawn on Begum's case but admitted it was 'very worrying' that she had 'no regrets' about joining ISIS, which he called the 'worst terror group in history'.
Begum said last night she understood why people in Britain would not have sympathy for her but insists that she would 'do anything' to bring her baby back to the UK.
Four years ago she arrived in ISIS' capital Raqqa with her teenage friend and were placed in a home for 'single women'. They filled out registration forms and expressed preferences over what kind of fight they wanted to be in a relationship with.
Within three weeks was married to a Dutch jihadi Yago Riedijk, 27, and she is currently pregnant with her third child - the other two died before they turned one.
The jihadi bride is the only known survivor of the three friends and today described witnessing bombings and the loss of her two infant children as the caliphate fell apart around her.
In an extraordinary interview with The Times she said: 'I saw my first severed head in a bin it didn’t faze me at all. It was from a captured fighter seized on the battlefield, an enemy of Islam. I thought only of what he would have done to a Muslim woman if he had the chance'.
Shamima Begum, then 15, in a photo held by her sister Renu whilst being interviewed by the media at New Scotland Yard
Shamima Begum one of three schoolgirls at Gatwick Airport as she left the UK to marry a foreign fighter for ISIS
Kadiza Sultana, then 16, Amira Abase, then 15 and Shamima Begum, then 15, (left to right) in images released by police in 2015 after they ran off to Syria
However the 19-year-old says she does not regret joining the terror group – but now wants to come home.
Speaking to the newspaper: 'I'm not the same silly little 15-year-old schoolgirl who ran away from Bethnal Green four years ago. And I don't regret coming here.'
Miss Begum claimed she had been living a normal life despite the atrocities - but now wants to return to Britain to bring up the baby she's about to give birth to.
When asked about why she had not stayed in ISIS' she said: 'I was weak'.
Miss Begum and her friends, Kadiza Sultana and Amira Abase, fled east London in the footsteps of another Bethnal Green schoolgirl, Sharmeena Begum, who had left the year before. She said each married a ISIS foreign fighter on reaching Syria.
Miss Begum said her first two children died in infancy due to disease and malnourishment.
Disillusioned, the young woman told how she had fled the final ISIS stronghold fearing that her unborn baby, who she says is due any day, would suffer the same fate.
She conceived the child with IS fighter Yago Riedijk, 27, a Dutchman who converted to Islam. The pair married only weeks after she arrived in Raqqa in 2015. Miss Begum admitted she was aware many would want her barred from returning home.
She conceded 'the caliphate is over' and had witnessed 'so much oppression and corruption that I don't think they deserved victory'.
'I know what everyone at home thinks of me as I have read all that was written about me online,' she said. 'But I just want to come home to have my child. That's all I want right now.
'I'll do anything required just to be able to come home and live quietly with my child.'
Miss Begum fled the final IS stronghold in Baghuz, eastern Syria, as Western-backed Kurdish forces closed in on the town. She said: 'I was weak. I could not endure the suffering and hardship that staying on the battlefield involved.
'But I was also frightened the child I am about to give birth to would die like my other children if I stayed on.
'So I fled the caliphate. Now all I want to do is come home to Britain.'
Her desire to return to east London will cause consternation to Home Office officials because the legal status of British IS brides is highly contentious.
In her first comments since her disappearance four years ago, Miss Begum repeated IS propaganda but also made remarks that were dismissive of the IS caliphate.
Her equivocation will lead some to question whether she has been brainwashed during her time in Syria.
'When I saw my first severed head in a bin it didn't faze me at all,' she said. 'It was from a captured fighter seized on the battlefield, an enemy of Islam.
'I thought only of what he would have done to a Muslim woman if he had the chance.'
She also poured scorn on the Western hostages she had watched being beheaded on videos.
She said: 'Journalists can be spies too, entering Syria illegally. They are a security threat for the caliphate.'
It is unclear whether she was referring specifically to the British victims beheaded by ISIS, Alan Henning and David Haines, both killed in 2014.
Miss Begum said Amira and Sharmeena had decided to remain in Baghuz. Kadiza was reportedly killed two years ago.
Shamima left the UK with two friends who flew to Turkey and crossed the border into Syria in February 2015
She said she 'last saw my two friends in June' of last year but had heard 'only two weeks ago' the pair were still alive.
However, she feared that 'all the recent bombing' may have killed them. Miss Begum praised their decision to remain.
'They urged patience and endurance in the caliphate and chose to stay behind in Baghuz,' she said.
'They would be ashamed of me if they survived the bombing and battle to learn that I had left.
'They made their choice as single women. For their husbands were already dead. It was their own choice as women to stay.' Miss Begum told her story to Times journalist Antony Loyd, who found her alone in the Al Hawl camp – a facility for around 39,000 refugees in northern Syria.
The three schoolgirls had initially flown to Turkey after telling their parents they were going out for the day. They later crossed the border into Syria. Miss Begum said: 'I applied to marry an English-speaking fighter between 20 and 25 years old.'
Kadiza married an American, Amira married an Australian and Sharmeena married a Bosnian. She said: 'There was a lot of oppressions of innocent people.
'In some cases fighters who had fought for the caliphate were executed as spies even though they were innocent.'
She said that her husband spent six months in prison after being accused of treachery.
She left her home in Raqqa in January 2017 with him and their first child, a daughter who later died along with her son in the all-round chaos of military defeat.
IS told jihadi families to make their own decisions as to whether to flee. The couple left together but her husband surrendered to a fighters opposed to IS. That was the last time she saw him.
The Brits who joined ISIS:
The 'Beatles'
Jihadi John was the leader of The Beatles
Alexanda Kotey, El Shafee Elsheikh, Mohammed Emwazi - known as Jihadi John and Aine Davis make up the quartet of terrorists known as 'The Beatles'.
They were named after the 60s band because of their English accents.
The four Londoners were linked to a string of hostage murders in Iraq and Syria during the bloody Islamist uprising. They also had a reputation for waterboarding, mock executions and crucifixions.
The US government said the group beheaded more than 27 hostages, including British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning, on camera.
Kotey and Elsheikh who were part of the beheading gang that included Jihadi John, were detained by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in January 2018.
The ringleader of the 'Beatles' -Jihadi John - was killed in an airstrike in 2015 in Syria. Aine Davis, is imprisoned in Turkey on terrorism charges.
Sally Jones
Jones, 50, became known as the 'White Widow' after calling for attacks on UK soil and moving to Syria with her jihadi husband Junaid Hussain in 2013.
The mother-of-one, originally from Chatham, Kent, was believed to have been killed in a US drone strike near the Syria-Iraq border, alongside her 12-year-old son JoJo, known as Hamza Hussain, in October 2017.
Sally Jones fled for Syria with her small son to join the ranks of the Islamic State group
Jones helped ISIS lure would-be jihadis and called for attacks on RAF bases and the Queen on VJ day. She travelled to Syria to marry terrorist Hussain was killed in a drone strike in 2015 although Jones kept producing propaganda for Daesh.
Jones has never formally been wiped off the US target list as her DNA was not recovered from the ground.
Siddhartha Dhar
Dhar is believed to have died in an airstrike in 2018
Dhar, 35, was used as a recruiting tool by propagandists after the death of fellow Brit Mohammed Emwazi - also known as Jihadi John.
Dhar, an ex-bouncy castle salesman from Walthamstow, East London, was the right-hand man to hate preacher Anjem Choudry.
The fugitive, also known as Abu Rumaysah,is believed to have died in an airstrike in 2018.
Dhar was born in London to a Hindu family. His friends remember him as 'Sid', who drank alcohol and dreamt of becoming a dentist.
But he was converted to Islam in his teens and radicalised by Choudary's banned Al-Muhajiroun group.
He later renamed himself Abu Rumaysah before being arrest with Choudhary and others on terror charges, only to skip bail.
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