The Observer: Nine British Medics Join ISIL in Syria, Families Pleads for Children’s Return

LONDON-Nine young British medical students have travelled illegally to Syria and are believed to be working in hospitals in areas controlled by the terrorist organization calling itself the “Islamic State” or (ISIL), the Observer Revealed yesterday. Their families were mounting a desperate effort on Saturday at the Turkish-Syrian border to persuade them to come home.

The group of four women and five men crossed the border last week, apparently keeping their plans secret from relatives until just before entering Syria, when one woman sent her sister a brief message and a smiling selfie.

“We all assume that they are in Tel Abyad now, which is under Isis control, Turkish opposition politician Mehmet Ali Ediboglu told the Observer, shortly after meeting the families.

“They have been cheated, brainwashed. That is what I, and their relatives, think,” Ediboglu said.

Syria and Turkey share a porous 500-mile border, one that smugglers have crisscrossed for several years now with recruits and funds for terrorist groups fighting the Syrian government.

H. Mustafa