DUBAI: The escaped wife of a Daesh fighter has revealed what life is like in Syria’s “Little Britain,” a neighborhood of British fighters in Raqqa.
Islam Mitat told The Sunday Times how she was forced to go to Syria by her British husband, referred to only as Ahmed, after believing the newly-married pair were heading to Turkey to start a new life together.
The 23-year-old from Morocco said she was surrounded by Daesh brides and fighters from the UK, which made the area feel like “Little Britain.”
Mitat told the newspaper that she met Sally Jones, referred to in the press as the “White Widow,” and sisters Salma and Zahra Halane from Manchester who had been dubbed the “Terror Twins” by the British media.
Mitat said the girls enjoyed reading about themselves on British news sites and would often visit each other for tea.
“I was so shocked,” she told The Sunday Times.
She also told the newspaper of how the young girls who had made headlines around the world had grown up: “The twins, they don’t look anything like the pictures you have of them. They’ve changed too much. They look like mothers.”
Mitat met her first husband on a Muslim dating site and claimed that after three months of marriage he told her that he had secured a job in Turkey.
Instead of settling in Turkey, she claims that her husband forced her to join him in Syria.
She said: ‘That is the problem with us women. We trust men too much.’
Mitat would go on to marry two more men after her first husband died.
She said that as the fighting intensified, mothers began to fear for their children.
“Especially the mothers wanted to leave because they think of their babies,” Mitat said. “But they were scared of their husbands.”
Mitat made her escape by disguising herself as a member of a Syrian family on the way to a wedding in March this year.
She made it past the Daesh checkpoints and ran to safety behind the lines of the anti-Daesh Syrian Democratic Forces.
She is now in a northern Syria-based safehouse with her son Abdullah and daughter Maria, both from separate marriages, but hopes to make her way to Europe.
“I never supported (Daesh),” she said. “Never. All I want is something better for me and my children. I just want to live again.”
Escaped Daesh bride reveals what life was like in Syria’s ‘Little Britain’
Escaped Daesh bride reveals what life was like in Syria’s ‘Little Britain’
Indonesia reaffirms Yemen’s territorial integrity, backs stability efforts amid tensions
- Statement comes after Saudi Arabia bombed a UAE weapons shipment at Yemeni port city
- Jakarta last week said it ‘appreciates’ Riyadh ‘working together’ with Yemen to restore stability
JAKARTA: Indonesia has called for respect for Yemen’s territorial integrity and commended efforts to maintain stability in the region, a day after Saudi Arabia bombed a weapons shipment from the UAE at a Yemeni port city that Riyadh said was intended for separatist forces.
Saudi Arabia carried out a “limited airstrike” at Yemen’s port city of Al-Mukalla in the southern province of Hadramout on Tuesday, following the arrival of an Emirati shipment that came amid heightened tensions linked to advances by the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council in the war-torn country.
In a statement issued late on Wednesday, the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it “appreciates further efforts by concerned parties to maintain stability and security,” particularly in the provinces of Hadramout and Al-Mahara.
“Indonesia reaffirms the importance of peaceful settlement through an inclusive and comprehensive political dialogue under the coordination of the United Nations and respecting Yemen’s legitimate government and territorial integrity,” Indonesia’s foreign affairs ministry said.
The latest statement comes after Jakarta said last week that it “appreciates the efforts of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as well as other relevant countries, working together with Yemeni stakeholders to de-escalate tensions and restore stability.”
Saudi Arabia leads the Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen, which includes the UAE and was established in 2015 to combat the Houthi rebels, who control most of northern Yemen.
Riyadh has been calling on the STC, which initially supported Yemen’s internationally recognized government against the Houthi rebels, to withdraw after it launched an offensive against the Saudi-backed government troops last month, seeking an independent state in the south.
Indonesia has also urged for “all parties to exercise restraint and avoid unilateral action that could impact security conditions,” and has previously said that the rising tensions in Yemen could “further deteriorate the security situation and exacerbate the suffering” of the Yemeni people.
Indonesia, the world’s biggest Muslim-majority country, maintains close ties with both Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which are its main trade and investment partners in the Middle East.
