Missing British medical students feared to have joined ISIS

[Morphine Prince 109,683]

 

Istanbul (AFP) - A group of British medical students of Sudanese origin who went missing after travelling to Turkey are feared to have crossed into Syria to join the Islamic State (IS) group as doctors, reports and sources said on Sunday.

The families of the students have travelled to the Turkey-Syria border in a desperate appeal for them to return home before it is too late, a Turkish opposition MP said.

According to reports in Britain's The Guardian newspaper and the BBC, nine young students flew to Istanbul from the Sudanese capital Khartoum on March 12 and then overland by bus towards Syria.

They have been joined by two other medics from the United States and Canada, also of Sudanese origin, the BBC said.

A Turkish MP from the Republican People's Party (CHP) Mehmet Ali Ediboglu, who represents the Hatay region bordering Syria, wrote on his Facebook page that he was helping the families in their search.

"Eleven doctors -- nine British and two Sudanese -- came to Turkey a week ago to join ISIS," he said, using another name for IS.

"The families of the young people have been in Turkey to search for them and bring them back," he added.

"Our greatest hope is to save the doctors from ISIS and reunite them with their families."

Ediboglu said the families had travelled to the city of Gaziantep, which has been seen as a key gateway for militants travelling to Syria.

He posted photographs of the nine British citizens -- five men and four women -- some proudly posing in academic dress on graduation day.

- 'Top students' -

Ahmed Babikir, students' dean at Khartoum's private University of Medical Sciences, told AFP that five students university were missing after travelling to Turkey.

"They all have British passports and are of Sudanese origin," he said.

"Their families have travelled after them to stop them from joining IS. We are not able to confirm they have crossed into Syria."

He said they had been studying medicine and pharmacology and were all "top students". After graduation, one of the students had been expected to qualify as "the youngest surgeon" in Sudan.

The Guardian said on its website that the alarm was raised when one of the youngest members of the group, Lena Maumoon Abdulqadir, 19, sent a brief WhatsApp message to her sister in Britain.

The message contained a picture of the teen smiling in a selfie picture, saying they were in Turkey and on their way to Syria.

The British Foreign Office meanwhile said: "We are providing consular assistance to their families and we have informed the Turkish police to try and ascertain their whereabouts."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/british-medical-students-missing-feared-joined-005717740.html 

[Cocaine Heart 4,768]

Turkey needs to try a lot harder in preventing people from crossing over into Syria.

[wiltedbliss 915]

Omfg what is happening to the world  

[xoxo cupcakke 4,781]

This reminds me: whatever became of those girls who supposedly fled to Turkey to join ISIS in Syria 

[HANZ 4,380]

This reminds me: whatever became of those girls who supposedly fled to Turkey to join ISIS in Syria 

​they were either raped or killed imo

[Melech 9,900]

Let's hope he won't return 

[Whispering 18,865]

They are all over the age of 18, let them go. Just don't ever let them come back! 

[Luc 4,776]

They are all over the age of 18, let them go. Just don't ever let them come back! 

​That comment belongs on a pre-election TV debate by a right-wing populist. That's totally against constituional state; in the first place you have to prevent them from going, and if they come back (which you hope), you can put them in jail and punish them that way. Letting them go to Syria makes IS stronger, which is exactly the opposite from what you want to happen.

[Whispering 18,865]

​That comment belongs on a pre-election TV debate by a right-wing populist. That's totally against constituional state; in the first place you have to prevent them from going, and if they come back (which you hope), you can put them in jail and punish them that way. Letting them go to Syria makes IS stronger, which is exactly the opposite from what you want to happen.

Nope, just my feelings on the matter...and by the way, I'm as far from right wing as one can get. 

I don't want to keep any terrorist in my country. Let them go! 

[Haroon 49,685]

I don't want to keep any terrorist in my country. Let them go! 

​Better to keep them in your country under lock & key than out there free to wreak havoc as they wish  

[Whispering 18,865]

​Better to keep them in your country under lock & key than out there free to wreak havoc as they wish  

My country has extremely liberal gun laws. Almost anyone can own assault rifles with hundreds of rounds of ammunition. I would rather these terrorist leave my country and not be allowed to come back...ever, under any circumstance.

[field 98]

Punishing them will be less productive than finding out why they despise the UK to the point of wanting to destroy it...