A family of seven from Bradford was revealed as missing on Tuesday, with police reporting they had travelled to Turkey raising concerns the group are en route to Syria. Parents Imran Ameen, 39, and Farzana Amee, 40, along with their five children, the youngest just 5-years-old, were last seen on 5th October.
According to West Yorkshire Police, the family is in Turkey, the main gateway to Islamic State-controlled territory in Syria, which has been savaged by more than four years of civil war.
“We would urge anyone with information about the family’s whereabouts to come forward and speak to police so the family can safely return to the UK,” said Assistant Chief Constable Russ Foster. “Any piece of information, no matter how small, could help the UK or overseas authorities to locate the family so that they can be safely returned home to their loved ones.”
Foster said British police were in touch with counterparts in Turkey, as well as members of the Ameen family, adding that his main concern was for the children.
More than 700 British nationals have travelled to Syria since the start of the civil war, the majority to join the Islamic State, which is fighting the government forces of President Bashar al-Assad.
Earlier this year, sisters Khadija Dawood, 30, Sugra Dawood, 34, and Zohra Dawood, 33, also from Bradford, went missing after going on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia along with their nine children. Police believe they entered Syria to join the Islamic State group.
Speaking to the Yorkshire Post, Dr Mohammed Iqbal, president of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association said: “For us as Bradfordians it’s worrying because people are going to start associating Bradford with radicalisation. We have to try to understand the size of the problem and counteract it. Communities have to wake up, families have to wake up.”
Women of Isis
Twins Salma and Zahra Halane(01 of10)
Open Image ModalKhadijah Dare aka Muhajirah fi Sham(02 of10)
Open Image ModalAqsa Mahmood aka Umm Layth (03 of10)
Open Image ModalUmm Layth was a prolific tweeter until she was identified in the press as 20-year-old Glaswegian Aqsa Mahmood.In her tweets, she urged Muslim men and women who could not come to fight to instead commit terrorist atrocities at home, praising the brutal murder of Drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich, the bombing of the Boston Marathon and the shooting of soldiers at Fort Hood in Texas. "If you cannot make it to the battlefield, then bring the battlefield to yourself," she tweeted.Mahmood, who is now married to an Isis fighter, attended the prestigious Craigholme School and was studying radiography at Glasgow Caledonian University when she left for Syria. Her family reported her missing to police in November 2013.Despite praising al Qaeda terrorists and encouraging more attacks, her tweets betray her Westernised roots. One asks for someone to "make a Hijrah [pilgrimage] from Scotland already and bring me Irn-Bru.” She also tweeted with delight at receiving European food, including Pringles crisps and Nutella.
Al Khanssaa(04 of10)
Open Image ModalA close friend of Aqsa and a Brit of Somalian heritage, Khanssaa is described on Twitter as the "cook of the house" in Raqqa where several girls live. She tweets them offering up Nutella pancakes. Unlike many of the other girls who have tweeted about how their families disapprove of their mission to Syria, Khanssaa said she is following in the footsteps of her father who left her family to fight a holy war, though she does not specify where.
Umm Anwar / Umm Farris(05 of10)
Open Image ModalWith the black flag of Isis as her profile picture, Umm Anwar, who also goes by the name Umm Farris, is one of the four British girls married to an Islamic State fighters who has only recently been identified by researchers. She is believed to be based in Raqqa, and recently said she was surprised to discover a ‘Yazidi slave girl’ from Iraq in a home she visited. As well as retweeting praise for Islamic State fighters and the Caliphate, she mentions shopping and joking with her friends in the city while her husband fights.
GreenBirds22(06 of10)
Open Image ModalThough much of her account extols the virtue of jihad, the third member of the British girl gang in Raqqa peppers her tweets with English slang, like ‘ain’t’ and calls her fellow ISIS wives ‘babesss’. Going under the name 'Black Banners' on Twitter, where her profile picture includes Osama Bin Laden, she suggested she is the second wife of a fighterShe tweets about being “bored” in Raqqa and asks her friends repeatedly to meet up and visit her. Her twitter also includes retweets of beautiful pictures and Vines, including a sunset at the Golden Gate bridge, San Francisco, and a comedy sketch about accidentally dropping a cookie in milk.
UkhtiB(07 of10)
Open Image ModalA close friend of Anwar, the pair joke about their shopping habits on Twitter, arrange lifts, drink smoothies and cook each other food. Her background is unclear, but she hints that her family disapprove of her being in Syria, tweeting: “Your family will be the biggest test for you once you make Hijrāh. They're either with you or without you.”Much of her feed consists of retweets of local fighters and of Islamic sayings, as well as graphic pictures of the dead from Iraq, Syria and Gaza.
Umm Talib(08 of10)
Open Image ModalUmm Khattab(09 of10)
Open Image ModalSally Jones aka Umm Hussain al-Britani(10 of10)
Open Image ModalFormerly a rock musician in a local band, the 45-year-old mother-of-two from Chatham, Kent, is believed to have converted to Islam to marry a British Isis fighter Junaid Hussain. The couple are reported to have moved to Raqqa, leaving her children behind.Her Twitter account under the name Umm Hussain al-Britani, contains threats like "You Christians all need beheading with a blunt knife and stuck on the railings at Raqqa... Come here I'll do it for you."