Turkey Criticises Britain Over Missing Girls

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Turkey has criticised Britain for taking too long to inform it about three London schoolgirls who travelled to the country and went missing.

Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said his country was not told for three days about the youngsters, who are thought to have been heading to Syria.

Shamima Begum, 15, Kadiza Sultana, 16, and Amira Abase, 15, were last seen on Tuesday as they left their homes in east London, telling their families they would be out for the day.

Mr Arinc said he hoped the girls would be found, but added that if they were not, it would be Britain, not Turkey, that was to blame.

He said: "It is a condemnable act for Britain to let three girls... come to Istanbul and then let us know three days later... They haven't taken the necessary measures.

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Gallery: Three Schoolgirls From East London Go Missing

These pictures were taken from Kadiza Sultana (l) and Shamima Begum's (r) Twitter accounts

Kadiza and Shamima are feared to be on their way to Syria with a third girl, 15-year-old Amira Abase

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Scotland Yard is urgently trying to trace the three teenage girls, who are from the same east London school

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CCTV captured images of the girls at Gatwick Airport before boarding a flight to Turkey

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CCTV captured images of the girls at Gatwick Airport before boarding a flight to Turkey. Kadiza Sultana is pictured here

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"The search is ongoing. It would be great if we can find them. But if we can't, it is not us who will be responsible, but the British."

The three schoolgirls are believed to have boarded a Turkish Airlines flight at Gatwick, which landed in Istanbul on the evening of 17 February, with the intention to cross into Syria and join terror group Islamic State.

The British authorities informed Ankara on 20 February, Mr Arinc said.

Turkey was able to do very little to track the movements of three people who had entered as tourists, he said.

Thousands of foreigners from more than 80 countries have joined the ranks of Islamic State and other radical groups in Syria and Iraq, many crossing through Turkey.

As many as 500 Britons are thought to have made their way to Syria or Iraq to join the jihadists.

Turkey has said it needs more detailed and faster information from Western intelligence agencies to intercept them.

The girls' school said on Monday that it had "no evidence" they were at risk from radicalisation.

It is understood Shamima had exchanged messages online with Aqsa Mahmood, a former private school pupil from Glasgow who travelled to Syria to marry a fighter in 2013.

Ms Mahmood's family lawyer Aamer Anwar also criticised the British security authorities on Sky News on Sunday, accusing them of not passing on intelligence that could stop children from travelling to Syria or Iraq.

On Saturday, Ms Mahmood's family said security services had "serious questions to answer" over her alleged contact with the missing girls because her use of social media had been monitored since her disappearance.

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