Footage emerges of British schoolgirls on their way to Syria to join IS

THE British schoolgirls who left home intent on joining IS have been seen on CCTV close to Syria. But who has been helping them?

FILE - In this still image grab taken from CCTV issued by the Metropolitan Police in London on Monday Feb. 23, 2015, 15-year-old Amira Abase, left, Kadiza Sultana,16, center, and Shamima Begum, 15, go through Gatwick airport, south of London, before they caught their flight to Turkey on Tuesday Feb 17, 2015. Little known to the wider world 18 months ago, the Islamic State extremist group has muscled its way into the international spotlight by carving out a self-declared caliphate in the heart of the Mideast, beheading its opponents and foreign journalists, and attracting radicalized youth as far afield as Paris, London and New York. (AP Photo/Metropolitan Police, File) NO ARCHIVE

NEW footage has emerged of three British schoolgirls on their way to meet Islamic State militants at the Syrian border.

Friends Amira Abase, 15, Shamima Begum, 15, and Kadiza Sultana, 16 were last seen on February 17 when they boarded a flight from London’s Gatwick Airport headed for Turkey. At the time Scotland Yard said they were intent on joining IS.

The footage shows the trio, who all went to the same school, waiting for 18 hours at Bayrampasa bus station on the European side of Istanbul, which the girls reached by metro from the airport, Milliyet newspaper said, citing police sources.

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From there they got on a bus to travel to Sanliurfa, 50km from the Syrian border region controlled by Islamic State militants.

Turkish police are trying to identify people seen in the footage helping the girls with their luggage at the bus station.

They are now thought to be inside Syria.

CCTV shows Amira Abase (left) and Shamima Begum passing through security barriers at Gatwick Airport, south of London, on February 17, 2015.

The three girls are thought to have been radicalised and want to fight with IS in Syria.

Britain has joined other European countries in calling on Turkey to stem the flow of foreign fighters to Syria, while the British Prime Minister David Cameron has urged social media firms to do more to combat online extremism because the girls appeared to have been radicalised “in their bedrooms.”

Turkey has complained that Britain was late in notifying them about the girls’ arrival.

The girls’ relatives have made emotional pleas for them to return home.

“If you’re watching this, baby, please come home,” said Renu Begum, an older sister of one of the missing girls, Shamima Begum, told the BBC last week. “Mum needs you more than anything in the world. You’re our baby and we just want you home, we want you safe. Just contact anybody let them know that you need help.”

Abase Hussen, father of Amira Abase, 15, holds a bear that Amira gave her mother. She told him she was going to a wedding when she left their London home

Abase Hussen, the father of Amira Abase, told the BBC his daughter told him she was going to a wedding when she left the family home.

A relative of Kadiza Sultana said “everyone’s hurting ... especially mum.”

“Find the courage in your heart to contact us and let us know that you’re safe and you’re OK,” the relative said.

Security forces estimate that about 600 British Muslims have travelled to the region to join the conflict, some with Islamic State, the extremist Sunni Muslim group that controls a swathe of territory in Syria and Iraq.

Originally published as Footage emerges of British schoolgirls on their way to Syria to join IS