British MP suggests placing ISIS spotters at Turkish airports

British MP suggests placing ISIS spotters at Turkish airports –

LONDON – A British member of parliament has said UK police should be dispatched to Turkish airports to apprehend potential sympathizers of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) traveling to Syria, according to UK media reports. 

Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons home affairs committee, said police “spotters” were needed in Istanbul amid growing numbers of radicals using the city as a gateway to the frontline in neighboring Syria. 

The statements come after three London schoolgirls, Kadiza Sultana, 16, Shamima Begum, 15, and Amira Abase, 15, were seen at a bus station in Istanbul in February. The bus they boarded was reportedly heading to southeastern Turkey, near the border with Syria. 

Turkey, a member of NATO and a European Union candidate, has been under fire from its Western allies for failing to do enough to stop jihadists crossing into Syria from its territory and accused Britain of failing to provide information about the girls sooner. 

British Home Secretary Theresa May told MPs she was in talks with Turkish Airlines to ramp up security amid evidence that there is an increasing number of women and girls traveling to join ISIS. 

In January, footage from security cameras in Istanbul Ataturk Airport recorded Hayat Boumedienne, an accomplice of the assailants in the deadly attack on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, who was also traveling to southeastern Turkey. 

Dabiq, a magazine produced by ISIS, interviewed Boumedienne, the widow of Paris Kosher market gunman Amedy Coulibaly, who said that she felt “at ease” with having “immigrated” to ISIS.