Parents of suspected British ISIS recruit plead for her return

The Somali-born British parents of a 15-year-old suspected of travelling to join the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria appealed on Tuesday for her return home.

“Please come back, we just want you to be safe,” said the parents of Yusra Hussein, the Daily Telegraph reported.

Hussein had been reported missing after she was last seen going to school last Wednesday.

She never arrived at her school, and a police investigation found that she took a bus to Heathrow airport, where she boarded a plane to Istanbul.

Police and her parents say they fear that she flew to Turkey to cross into Syria to join ISIS.

Louisa Rolfe, assistant chief constable of Avon and Somerset police, said of Hussein: “There are indications she may have been radicalized, but at the moment our priority is to find her before she crosses the border to Syria and make sure she is safe.”

People who know Hussein have described her as a bright, articulate girl who wanted to become a dentist.

Her school friends described her as “very religious” and “very intelligent,” adding that no-one had noticed any signs of her becoming radicalized.

The Bristol Post reported a 15-year-old girl who met Hussein at a local mosque as saying: “She is a very nice girl. She worked very hard and wanted to do well in school.”

Local councillor Hibaq Jama said Bristol’s Somali community was concerned that other children might be tempted to follow suit.

A spokesperson for Scotland Yard police confirmed that a 17-year-old from Lambeth, south London, had been missing from her home since last Wednesday, and that she was believed to have flown to Istanbul with Hussein.

Academics at King’s College London estimate that some 50 British females - mainly aged between 16 and 24 - have joined ISIS, many travelling to its de facto capital in Raqqa, Syria.