Thursday, March 12, 2015
Turkey says it has detained a "foreign spy" for helping three British schoolgirls who travelled to Syria to join Islamic State.
The Turkish foreign minister said an intelligence agent working for one of the states in the US-led coalition had helped London teenagers Kadiza Sultana, 16, Shamima Begum, 15, and Amira Abase, 15, get to Syria.
In an interview published on the official Anatolia news agency, Mevlut Cavusoglu said: "Do you know who helped those girls? He was captured.
"He was someone working for the intelligence (service) of a country in the coalition."
Mr Cavusoglu said the agent in question was not American nor from an EU state but did not elaborate.
The three schoolgirls flew from Gatwick to Istanbul on 17 February and are feared to have continued to Syria to become so-called "jihadi brides".
The girls, who all attended Bethnal Green Academy in East London, are believed to be staying in a house in the IS militants' stronghold, Raqqa.
The teenagers are thought to have stolen family jewellery to fund their trip, Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley told MPs earlier this week.
They paid more than £1,000 in cash to a travel agent for their flights to Turkey, the Home Affairs Select Committee heard.
It also emerged the trio were among seven schoolgirls who were handed letters by the police about another 15-year-old from Bethnal Green Academy who ran away to Syria in December.
Earlier, relatives of the girls demanded an apology from the Met for failing to send the crucial letter directly to their parents.
Abase Hussein, Amira's father, insisted if he had seen the police letter he would have talked his daughter out of leaving and taken away her passport.
Met Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe apologised for failing to communicate more directly with the families - but insisted there was nothing more the force could have done to stop the girls leaving the UK.
CCTV footage emerged last week which appeared to show the girls at a bus station in Istanbul.
They were seen wrapped in heavy winter jackets and carrying packed sports bags and holdalls.
The footage was recorded less than 24 hours after the trio left their London homes, telling their families they would be out for the day.