Gun-wielding teen girls from Europe join ISIS
A pair of Gun-wielding teenage girls from Austria are believed to have answered the call to jihad in Syria — and may be inspiring others to do the same.
Samra Kesinovic, 16, and Sabina Selimovic, 15, are the daunting duo feared to be encouraging young Austrian girls to flee their country and take up arms in Syria to help ISIS spread violence, Central European News reports.
Austria’s Interior Ministry has confirmed that two additional girls from Vienna — ages 16 and 14 — recently were nabbed trying to sneak out of the country and join the Islamic State jihadists.
They were caught when the mother of a third friend who was supposed to go with them to Syria grew suspicious when she noticed all the luggage her daughter had packed.
Little is known about the two, but their parents are believed to be from Iraq. Police are trying to piece together how the wannabe jihadis could have become radicalized and who may have lent a direct hand in getting them to Syria.
Kesinovic and Selimovic vanished from Austria earlier this year and paraded their terror involvement on social media, posting images of themselves holding AK47s as they stood among several armed men, according to CEN.
Austrian media dubbed the girls the new face of jihad in Syria two weeks ago and warned that others just like them have started to become galvanized by their actions.
“If we can catch them before they leave, we have the chance to work with their parents and other institutions to bring the youngsters out of the sphere of influence that prompted them to act in this way in the first place,” said Interior Ministry spokesman Alexander Marakovits.
He added that the problem with teenagers fleeing the country to commit bloodshed abroad is something that’s increased greatly and is difficult to fix.
“Once they have left the country, even if they then changed their minds, it is then almost impossible to get them back.”
Up to 130 people from Austria are believed to be waging jihad across the globe, CEN reports. More than half of them are thought to have originally traveled from the Caucasus region and have valid residence permits in Austria.
Gun-wielding teen girls from Europe join ISIS | New York Post