UK schoolgirls head for Syria

Scotland Yard is concerned about young women being radicalised. - AP

Parents devastated to find daughters skipping school and trying to join Isis.

Scotland Yard has warned of a growing trend of young women travelling to Syria after launching an urgent appeal to find three teenage schoolgirls inspired by a classmate to flee the country to join Islamic State (Isis).

The girls, all described as straight-A students from Bethnal Green Academy in East London, left home on Wednesday and flew to Turkey, raising fresh questions about the co-operation of airlines in attempting to prevent radicalised young Britons from travelling abroad.

Police believe that heavy snow in Istanbul is likely to have delayed the girls' plans to travel from Istanbul to the Syrian border and may provide a final opportunity to rescue them before they become effective prisoners of radicals in Syria.

Detectives are understood to be investigating whether the girls - Shamima Begum, 15, Kadiza Sultana, 16, and an unnamed girl, 15 - are part of wider group of teenagers from the highly rated school with ambitions to travel to the country.

Police revealed yesterday that the trio were linked to a 15-year-old fellow schoolgirl who left the country in December for Syria and has not been traced. Although police were unable to prevent her flight from the country, they brought her 15-year-old friend home after stopping a plane on the runway at Heathrow Airport. She did not attend the school. The decision to release the names of two of the girls was made in conjunction with the "devastated" families. Anti-terrorist officers were forced to weigh up publicly naming the girls with the prospect of them becoming poster girls for jihad if they do make it across the border.

Senior officers said it was not clear what prompted them to take such radical action, with few details from social media or indications that they had been targeted for grooming by radicals. They took their phones with them, but it was not yet clear if they had been in contact with their friend who left the country in December.

Security footage of 'Girl C' (above), Shamima Begum (middle) and Kadiza Sultana (top) as they pass through Gatwick Airport on their way to Istanbul.

The two girls who were named were British with Bangladeshi heritage. They gave plausible explanations to their families where they would be for the day and boarded a Turkish Airlines flight from Gatwick just after noon on Wednesday. The families reported the girls missing that night and the next morning.

Isis has sought to recruit young women as part of its campaign. They are banned from fighting, but British extremists have appealed to young girls and women to travel to Syria to become wives of fighters, and mothers.

Researchers from King's College International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation said that the women travelling appeared to be becoming younger and less fanatical. A report last month claimed that as many as 550 women from western Europe had travelled to join the terrorist group.

Commander Richard Walton, head of the Metropolitan Police's counter-terrorism command, said: "We are concerned about the numbers of girls and young women who have or are intending to travel to the part of Syria" controlled by Isis. Independent

— Independent

Welfare radicals

Australia:

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has foreshadowed a crackdown on abuse of welfare by terror supporters.

He said up to November, 55 of 57 Australians who had travelled to the Middle East to join the Islamist death cult had been on welfare, and that wasn't good enough.

"If you are fit enough to go overseas to fight for a terrorist organisation, surely you should not be abusing the welfare system back in Australia," he said yesterday. Mr Abbott will deliver a national security statement tomorrow.

— AAP