A British teenager who joined ISIS in 2015 says she wants to return home.
Shamima Begum, who left the UK with two of her classmates from east London when she was 15, was found in a refugee camp in northern Syria by UK newspaper The Times.
Now 19, and nine months pregnant, Begum told the paper that she “just want(s) to come home to have my child.”
Begum said she had no regrets about coming to Syria, but told the paper that “the caliphate is over.”
Begum said she had two other children who died in infancy from malnutrition and illness.
Two weeks ago, Begum said, she decided to flee from ISIS’ last stand in the front-line village of Baghouz in eastern Syria, citing fears for her unborn child.
“In the end, I just could not endure any more,” she told the Times. “I just couldn’t take it. Now all I want to do is come home to Britain.”
Begum said her 27-year-old husband, a Dutchman who had fought for ISIS, surrendered to Syrian fighters allied to the US- supported Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) weeks ago and that she hadn’t seen him since.
Begum told the paper that she was aware of “what everyone at home thinks of me as I have read all that was written about me online.”
more at cnn.com