Shamima Begum is one 19 British ISIS brides at ‘ticking time bomb’ detention camp – and some want to return to UK
JIHADI bride Shamima Begum is just one of 19 British women being held in a “ticking time bomb” detention camp in Syria.
A camp commander has revealed that there are 19 UK women and 35 children being “indoctrinated” with ISIS ideology which is running rampant in the compound.
It is the first time a specific figure has emerged and it’s far higher than previous estimates.
Begum, 24, who fled the UK to join the death cult aged 15, has spent the last five years confined inside Al Roj, one of two sprawling detention camps stuffed full with Islamic State families.
The UK has stripped all 35 ISIS brides of their citizenship and is refusing to allow them to return due to fears over national security.
Like Begum, another Brit women, Wajda Rashid, 45, from Leeds – who joined ISIS along with her Porsche-driving barrister husband – is also begging to return to the UK with her son, Adam, 9.
They live among tens of thousands who have been confined to the grim makeshift cities of Al Roj and Al Hol in northeast Syria since the death cult collapsed in 2017.
But the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) who guard the huge compounds have warned that extremism is rising once again inside its walls.
They are now urging the UK to take back the 35 women and their kids after calling the camps a “ticking time bomb” where ISIS ideology still runs deep.
One commander told The Mail on Sunday: “We want the British Government to take their citizens and conduct trials in Britain.
“Their presence in the camp is a ticking time bomb, posing a danger to everyone.”
The Brit mums are said to be “indoctrinating” their children, largely born out of forced marriages and rape, with “extremist ideologies” and refusing to send them to school.
In February, Siamand Ali, a commander in the SDF, also branded the two camps a “ticking time bomb” and appealed for international help.
He told Sky News: “The IS prisons and camps have become a way in which IS… can re-establish themselves and in the camps you’ve got a whole generation trained in IS ideology, methods and way of life – it’s a ticking time bomb which can explode anytime.”
Begum, from Bethnal Green, is one of 40,000 foreign nationals – 60 per cent of them children – being held in the camps and ISIS prisons in northern Syria.
In February, Begum lost her citizenship appeal after her British status was stripped in 2019 on national security grounds.
It was the latest in her countless legal bids to claw her way back into Britain – nine years after she fled to marry an ISIS jihadist.
They had three children, none of whom survived.
She will stay in Syria for now, but her case can still be taken to the UK Supreme Court which could cost the tax payer as much as £7million in legal fees.
Meanwhile, Wajda Rashid is asking the UK to take her back as her son needs surgery for shrapnel injuries.
The former teacher, who was first interviewed by filmmaker Andrew Drury in 2022, said she has always regretting travelling to Syria to join ISIS.
“I miss my family so much. My mum, my dad, my brothers….And I just want to go back and live with them and never ever go out of the country ever. I am traumatised,” she told the MoS.
Her husband Yasser Iqbal, 46, is believed to be in a men’s prison in northern Syria after being captured.
After being stripped of her citizenship, Begum argued she was left stateless and admitted previously that she was “brainwashed” and regretted her actions in Syria.
However, in past interviews an unremorseful Begum said she had no regrets about joining the barbaric Islamic State and was not fazed by seeing discarded heads in bins.
She also told how she had sewn ISIS bombers into their suicide vests.
Now, she said she spends her time watching ITV’s Good Morning Britain in her tent and binging blockbusters such as Men in Black.
A year ago, The Sun exposed how an ISIS slave saw Begum at a terrorist training camp where she was taught to use suicide belts and guns.
Shamima Begum - how she fled UK for Syria
Begum and two pals – Kadiza Sultana and Amira Abase – ran away to Syria in February 2015.
She used her elder sister’s passport to flee with her Bethnal Green Academy friends.
The trio flew to Turkey and then crossed the border into Syria with the aid of smugglers.
Within weeks of arriving, Shamima was married to Isis jihadi Yago Riedijk, 27, from Holland.
They had two children who died from malnutrition and disease.
The couple were separated as they fled Baghouz, the village where a few hundred Isis fighters were holed up in a desperate last stand.
Shamima ended up in a Kurdish refugee camp where she gave birth to her third child.
Eldest sister Renu revealed that her family had lost contact with her for the “longest time” until she was found by a Times journalist.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid stripped her of her UK citizenship to stop her from ever coming back.
Begum then lost a legal battle to return to the UK for a court appeal over the removal of her British citizenship in February 2021.
The Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favour of the Government and said she cannot come back to the UK for a court case to reclaim her British passport for the safety of the public.
Lord Reed said her legal bid to reclaim her British citizenship should be postponed until she is no longer considered a threat to national security.
Begum launched an appeal at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) in 2022 while languishing at a refugee camp.
She later lost this bid but her lawyers launched another the Court of Appeal.
This was dismissed by judges, who found the SIAC ruling was lawful.
