Three male British teenagers have been arrested after being stopped in the Turkish city of Istanbul while attempting to reach Syria to join Isis, according to police.
The Metropolitan police confirmed on Sunday that Turkish officials stopped two 17-year-old boys from north-west London after being tipped off by British officers. They were with a 19-year-old man and all three were on their way to Syria.
The three were brought back to the UK late on Saturday night and were arrested on suspicion of planning terrorist attacks. They remain in police custody.
The two younger teens were reported missing on Friday. Officers from the Met’s SO15 counter-terrorism unit alerted the Turkish authorities, who stopped the trio and prevented them from travelling into Syria. The families of the three teenagers have been told.
The Met said: “On Friday, 13 March officers from the CTC were made aware that two 17-year-old boys from north-west London had gone missing and were believed to be travelling to Syria. Enquiries revealed that they had travelled with a third male aged 19.
“Officers alerted the Turkish authorities who were able to intercept all three males, preventing travel to Syria.
“On Saturday, 14 March the three males returned to the UK and at approx 23.10 [GMT] were arrested on suspicion of preparation of terrorist acts contrary to section 5 of the Terrorism Act 2006.
“All three have been taken to a central London police station, where they remain in custody.”
Turkish authorities have been under increased pressure to intercept British nationals travelling through Turkey in order to join Isis fighters in Syria, after three British teenage girls fled their families in east London to join the terrorist organisation and were pictured apparently crossing the border.
Kadiza Sultana, 16, and 15-year-olds Shamima Begum and Amira Abase – friends from the Bethnal Green academy in east London – flew to Turkey on 17 February and subsequently crossed the border into Syria. Two months previously, one of their school friends, Sharmeena Begum, also 15, had run away from her home in Bethnal Green to travel to an Isis-controlled part of Syria. It is understood that, in early December 2014, Sharmeena flew out of the UK from Gatwick airport to Istanbul, and then travelled by road across Turkey to its border with Syria.
Her friends were reported missing by their families to police, who said they immediately contacted Turkish authorities – a statement that was questioned by Ankara. The trio were later pictured on CCTV waiting for 18 hours at a bus station and then apparently crossing the border.
Under mounting US pressure Turkey has increased border security, cracking down on smuggling and tightening rules for Syrian refugees trying to enter the country. According to one diplomatic source in Ankara, the Turkish police have stepped up efforts to stop foreign nationals from crossing the border into Syria.
So far Turkey has banned 12,519 people suspected of wanting to go to Syria from entering the country and 1,154 more were deported, the Turkish foreign
minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, said on Friday.
Other British nationals have travelled to Syria to fight against Isis.
It also emerged on Friday that a London teenager, who was allegedly trying to join a Kurdish military women’s unit fighting Isis in Syria, had been charged with a terrorist offence.
Shilan Ozcelik, who is of Kurdish descent, was arrested earlier this year at Stansted airport. She is believed to be the first British citizen to be arrested for trying to join the campaign against the jihadis who control eastern Syria and western Iraq.
Ozcelik, from Holloway, north London, faces one charge of engaging in conduct in preparation for giving effect to an intention to commit acts of terrorism under the 2006 Terrorism Act.
Earlier this month a former British Royal Marine, Konstandinos Erik Scurfield, died fighting for Kurdish YPG forces in northern Syria.
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