Shamima Begum's two pals who also fled UK to join ISIS now - regret and death
Three straight-A students left their families in the UK to join the Islamic State (ISIS) several years ago - and one of them, Shamima Begum, still hopes to return to England one day.
It's been five years since Begum was stripped of her British citizenship after running away as a 15-year-old schoolgirl to marry a notoriously hardline IS member. The jihadi bride left east London with her two pals from Bethnal Green Academy, Kadiza Sultana, 16, and Amira Abase, 15, to join one of the most savage terrorist groups in history.
Today, she lost a Court of Appeal challenge over the removal of citizenship, after a long battle.
The ruling means she remains in Syria with no chance of return to the UK.
In 2019, mum-of-three Begum was found alive by a British journalist in a refugee camp after IS lost the ground war in Syria. She was banned from entering Britain and deemed a threat to the nation. But what happened to her fellow school friends, Kadiza and Amira, and where are they now?
ISIS bride Shamima Begum on how 'dream' became nightmare when she joined group
The three schoolgirls going through security at Gatwick Airport (PA)The trio hit headlines around the world when CCTV images of them walking through metal detectors at the London airport were released in a desperate bid to stop them from arriving at their destination. They were traveling alone, with Begum wearing a leopard print scarf, Abase in a luminous yellow hoodie, and Sultana in a grey checked scarf and jumper.
The scarves were seen again in CCTV of the girls at a bus terminal in Istanbul, Turkey, as they carried their heavy bags through the snow and waited to board public transport. But the police appeal was already too late - the girls had made it across the border ato marry Islamic fighters in Syria.
The roles they played in the caliphate remain uncertain. Begum claims she was simply a housewife, while intelligence sources said she was involved with stitching explosives into suicide vests.
The teens in Turkey carrying their bags through the snow (Daily Record)Sultana was the oldest of the three girls. She had married an American ISIS fighter but in phone calls to her sister in the UK, filmed for ITV News, she said she wanted to return to the UK but was "scared".
Speaking straight after the phone call, her sister Halima said: "She sounds very terrified. She did get very emotional there as well. I feel really helpless. What can I do? It's really hard. I don't think she's ever made a choice by herself. That was the first one and a very big one. I just look forward to the next call and that's what keeps me going."
Sultana is believed to have died in a Russian airstrike a few weeks later in May 2016, but that has never been independently confirmed. Her family's lawyer, Tasnime Akunjee, told BBC Newsnight they heard a report of her death in Raqqa. Mr Akunjee explained: "I think she found out pretty quickly that the propaganda doesn't match up with the reality."
He also said: "The problem with that was the risk factors around leaving are quite terminal also, in that if ISIS were able to detect and capture you then their punishment is quite brutal for trying to leave. In the week where she was thinking of these issues a young Austrian girl had been caught trying to leave ISIS territory and was by all reports beaten to death publicly, so given that that was circulated in the region as well as outside - I think Kadiza took that as a bad omen and decided not to take the risk."
The trio's passport photos when they ran away (PA)Speaking years later, Begum spoke about losing her friend. She said: "Her house was bombed. Underground, there was secret stuff going on and a spy had figured out that something was going on and other people got killed as well. At first, I was in denial. I thought if we died, we'd die together."
Abase married ISIS fighter Abdullah Elmir, an 18-year-old Australian, who was nicknamed the Ginger Jihadi, because of his ginger hair. He was killed in a drone strike in December 2015. Abase had been communicating with her mum Fetia Hussen back in the UK via social media but the messages suddenly stopped and her mum now believes her daughter is dead too.
Begum has claimed Abase is still alive. Begum married IS member Dutch national Yago Riedijk, 27, when she was 15 and had three children with him who all later died. She was stripped of her British citizenship in 2019 and lost her appeal to get it back in 2023. She reportedly now sells food parcels she has been given in a detention camp by aid agencies to make enough money for Western clothes and hair dye.
ISIS jihadi student who wants to return to UK says he has 'right to come home'
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