'Foreign spy' arrested in Turkey in connection with missing British schoolgirls

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.

Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu

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.

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