A mother has abandoned her 14-year-old marriage and fled to Syria with her two young children to join Islamic State.
The 33-year-old Rehana Begum Islam disappeared overnight with her eight-year-old son and three-year-old daughter. She travelled from Heathrow to Istanbul on February 14. She finally managed to take another flight to Gaziantep, a city on Turkey’s border with Syria.
Her facilitator was none other than a Syrian who was arrested last week for involvement in the disappearance of three east London schoolgirls across the border.
This was ascertained after authorities found the man’s details on the British woman’s laptop, suggesting that they were associated with the extremists of Islamic State (IS) for no less than five long weeks.
Azizul Islam a dejected man, said he could not control his tears to find out from police that she had travelled to a Syrian gateway Gaziantep, popular for fighters from abroad and their ‘brides’.
“It’s really hard for me,” said the 36-year-old minicab driver last night. “I haven’t seen my kids for more than one month. I can’t even sleep without my kids,”
Islam went on to question what his wife’s motives could be. “Why did she go there? She has two kids, she has a family, and this house is in her name. Why has she left everything? This is really unbelievable.”
“When the police told me she travelled to Gaziantep – I’ve seen it in the news, so many British people are trying to travel there – it came into my mind that maybe she’s gone to Syria but still I can’t believe it.”
It was the previous night when intelligence sources from Turkey identified and revealed her ID documents on the laptop of Mohammed al-Rashed, who was arrested for helping Shamima Begum, 15, Kadiza Sultana, 16, and Amira Abase, 15, to marry men in Syria.
In his confession, Al-Rashed, 28, told detectives he has mainly helped British fighters but also South Africans and Australians. Meanwhile, details to the whereabouts of two other Britons, aged 19 and 29, were also on his laptop.
“I’m worried about my kids, I hope she comes back with my kids. Please. She’s going to destroy my two kids’ lives,” Islam added.
“IS is killing Muslim people as well. My religion doesn’t say anything about killing people. If you’re Muslim you should know that the Quran doesn’t say this. These people are dangerous.”
Meanwhile, Turkey has been receiving criticism for failing to control the border with Syria, but has accused European states of failing to prevent would-be IS fighters from leaving in the first place.
A worrying aspect is that the militants are targeting large number of young people to lure them to the war zone in Syria and Iraq. Security services reveal that over 600 Britons have gone to join extremist groups since violence erupted in the region.
They include 22 women and girls who have travelled in the past 12 months, many of whom wanted to become brides of the IS militants.