Missing UK schoolgirls, who fled Britain to join Islamic State, seen in Syria
A video footage, believed to be of the Bethnal Green schoolgirls, giving glimpse of their life in Syria has surfaced months after they fled Britain to join the Islamic State.
In the video footage, accessed by the Daily Telegraph, two out of the three British schoolgirls are seen shopping for groceries in Raqqa along with an armed woman.
The three Bethnal Green Academy students from East London – Shamima Begum, 15, Kadiza Sultana, 16, and Amira Abase, 15 – had run away from their homes in London in February earlier this year.
The video, secretly shot by activists from Eye on the Homeland in Raqqa, shows the women walking in the city with their faces covered by niqab and are wearing black abaya.
According to the Telegraph, the UK schoolgirls were kept under close watch for the first few months after their arrival and chaperoned by a woman known as ‘Um Laith’ – Mother of the Lion.
The Bethnal Green schoolgirls were initially not trusted by the Islamic State and were kept locked in an apartment and not permitted to leave without their chaperone.
The video footage shows one of the girls wearing trainers similar to the ones worn by 15-year-old Amira Abase in the CCTV footage captured at the Turkish bus station where the girls were last seen in February.
The trainer-clad girl is seen with a Kalashnikov automatic rifle over her shoulder while carrying a shopping bag.Another girl carries a tray of eggs while the third one is carrying a a grocery bag.