British 'terror twins', 17, who went to Syria tell family they are still in ISIS's capital as hunt for on-the-run jihadi brides continues
- Zahra and Salma Halane contacted their father to say they are now in Syria
- They were believed to be among three British teenagers to 'flee from ISIS'
- Source within ISIS-held Mosul revealed huge hunts underway to find girls
- Expert says ISIS is likely to publicly execute any it suspects of defecting
Twin
schoolgirls who fled Britain to become jihadi brides have now escaped
the ISIS-stronghold of Mosul in Iraq and are now in Syria, a source
close to the family has said.
Zahra
and Salma Halane, 17, were believed to be among three teenage girls who
reportedly escaped Islamic State's brutal regime in the city.
It
followed reports from inside ISIS-held city which claimed three British
teenagers were being hunted down by the terror group for going on the
run.
But
the new source in the UK says the Halane sisters contacted their father
Ibrahim this week to tell him they are safe, but now in Syria.
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Escaped:
Salma (left) and Zahra Halane (right), of Greater Manchester, were
believed to be among three teenagers to escape ISIS's brutal regime in
Iraq but sources close to the family have denied these reports
Exodus: The girls disappeared from
their home in Manchester (pictured) last July, and are still reportedly
living under Islamic State's brutal regime in Syria
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The Somali-born twins - who are now reportedly safe - achieved 28 GCSEs between them and had ambitions to become doctors.
Yesterday
Theresa May suggested they may not be allowed back into the UK, if they
were in fact among the three British teenagers to have escaped Islamic
State's clutches.
Speaking
on ITV's Good Morning Britain, the Home Secretary said: 'We look on a
case-by-case basis, and people have come back – youngsters who have gone
there and suddenly realise what a mistake they've made.'
Two
weeks ago, a blogger known as Mosul Eye said militants were desperately
hunting for three girls, writing: 'It is believed that those girls have
escaped.
'Three
girls [Foreigners – British] married to ISIL militants, reported
missing, and ISIL announced to all its checkpoints to search for them.
But
yesterday he updated his Facebook page to say: 'A key note on our
report with regards to the three British escapees in Mosul.
'We
cannot confirm, as of yet, if those girls were the same trio mentioned
in the British media, as their identities still unknown to us.
Manhunt: A source
deep inside ISIS-held Mosul said the militants were looking for three
British girls who defected from their ranks (file photo)
Brainwashed: It is believed the girls were radicalised by their brother Ahmed (pictured) who also travelled to Syria last year
Police
believe the girls were radicalised online and by their brother Ahmed.
They fled their home in Manchester last July. It is understood they
married IS militants but were widowed when their husbands were killed in
fighting.
The girl's father, Ibrahim, 52, said his daughters have told him 'everything has changed', The Sun reported today.
Last
night a senior member of the Somali community in Manchester told The
Daily Mail: 'The family are extremely positive the twins are trying to
get home… we are praying they come back safely.'
The identity of the girls emerged after an expert on ISIS warned that, if caught, the girls are likely to be executed.
Raffaello
Pantucci, Director at the International Security Studies at RUSI, said:
'If you look on past form, [ISIS] have jailed people... or they've
simply executed them.
'They've
quite publicly executed people who they say were trying to defect or
became spies in some way and they've punished them with death.
'I can't think of cases where they have executed jihadi brides but it's possible they could execute them too.
Tough stance:
Home Secretary Theresa May (pictured) today said the government would
examine their case if Zahra and Salma Halane did manage to return to
Britain
'What
we don't know is what they're being accused of or why they ran away at
the moment, whether it's apostasy, abandonment, or adultery from their
husbands, it's difficult to know exactly what is happening.'
On
the girls' chances of survival, he added: 'The terrain [around Mosul]
is treacherous. It would be very difficult for three small girls. I
don't know how good their Arabic was, I don't know if they know the area
or how much money they have.
'But if they have managed to escape and they are now trying to find a safe place to go then they're in for a very tough time.'
FATHER OF FIRST RUNAWAY GIRL SAYS 'I HOPE MY GIRL HAS FLED'
The
father of the first east London schoolgirl to run away to Syria says he
hopes his daughter is among those who have now fled ISIS.
Sharmeena
Uddin disappeared last December, before the other three schoolgirls,
and was originally believed to be in the terrorist stronghold of Raqqa.
Last
night, her distraught father, Mohammed Uddin (pictured, below), said he
hoped his 15-year-old daughter was among the trio now thought to have
fled the barbaric terrorist group.
Speaking from his East London home, Mr Uddin, 38, said police are examining the reports.
'I hope that it is Sharmeena because she's 16 at the end of the month. Maybe it's her. I hope it is,' he added.
The
ages of the three girls reported to have fled led to initial
suggestions that they were Shamima Begum, Amira Abase and Kadiza
Sultana, who disappeared from their homes in east London earlier this
year.
But
a lawyer for the trio's family denied they were on the run, insisting
most recent reports from them suggest they are living 300 miles away
from Mosul in the Syrian city of Raqqa, ISIS's de-facto capital.
Tasnime
Akunjee, who represents the girls' families, said: 'According to our
own sources the girls from Bethnal Green remain in Raqqa and are not
being pursued by any parties.
'The families heard from me that it is extremely unlikely to be them.
'The blog might be right about other girls, there's a number of other girls out there. From my sources, it's not them.'
He says the schoolgirls' families met the news that they are not on the run with 'mixed' emotions.
The
lawyer added: 'The families have mixed feelings. One does not want
their daughter going on the run from the most known terrorist
organisation in the world in their own territory. But the families want
them back.'
He said the girl's famlies have had no recent communication with the girls.
The families of Amira Abase and Kadiza Sultana refused to comment on the development.
The
newly-appointed Home Secretary told ITV1's Good Morning Britain:
'Obviously there are young people who go to Syria, some of whom find
that what they see there is not what they thought it was going to be.
'We
look on a case-by-case basis, and people have come back - youngsters
who have gone there and suddenly realise what a mistake they've made.'
She confirmed that some young Britons who went to Syria or Iraq to join ISIS have come back after becoming disillusioned.
Jihad: It was
initially thought the three girls on the run were east London
schoolgirls Shamima Begum, Amira Abase and Kadiza Sultana, but their
families have said they are in the Syrian city of Raqqa
Identity: A
lawyer for the families of Kadiza Sultana (left), Shamima Begum (right)
and Amira Abase, who left their homes in February of this year to join
ISIS, said they 'remain in Raqqa and are not being pursued'
Mosul
Eye, a blogger in Iraq, revealed the girls had fled on May 2 through
his Facebook page - set up 'to communicate what's happening in Mosul to
the rest of the world, minute by minute from an independent historian
inside Mosul'.
The
blogger, who opposes ISIS and remains anonymous, has written in detail
in both English and Arabic about the inner-workings of the group, their
execution of civilians and casualties they suffer from coalition
air-strikes.
In
a later post he added: 'The latest info I got on them is they are still
on the run, but still in Mosul, and ISIL is thoroughly searching for
them and hasn't captured them yet.
'They are Brits, not immigrants, and they are very young teens (around 16 years old). That's all I have about them for now.'
The
Foreign Office was investigating who the trio might be and a spokesman
told the MailOnline: 'We are aware of reports and are looking into
them.'
In
earlier postings Mosul Eye warns of IS carrying out mass searches of
homes, looking for laptops, mobile phones, tablets and other devices,
warning: 'Please delete all your browsing history from anything related
to politics, ISIL, adult content, music, movies, pro-government pages.'
ISIS
are reportedly unpopular with much of the local population and appear
to be increasing the terror in the city as their losses mount.
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