Shamima Begum could ‘be running free in days’ as Syrian prisons risk being left unguarded

Shamima Begum as the guards holding her and thousands of ISIS terrorists have come under attack.

Begum has been held in Syria since 2019 after she was captured by the allies in the war against ISIS. She had previously as a 15-year-old schoolgirl from Bethnal Green, London.

The 25-year-old had her British citizenship revoked on national security grounds six years ago by former Home Secretary Sajid Javid after she made sickening comments supporting terrorism in a series of interviews.

And Begum lost her final UK legal challenge against the decision to strip her of British citizenship at the Court of Appeal in February.

But after the lightning fall of President Assad in Syria to Turkish-backed forces last month she could be set free by her own guards.

In the past 24 hours the Kurdish-led Syrian Defence Force (SDF) running the detention camps of Begum and ISIS terrorists have been hit by Turkish airstrikes and ground assault by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the new Syrian government.

has previously threatened to withdraw the 2,000 US troops from Syria, but was forced to back down in 2019 after allies argued it would leave the Kurds unprotected. But after winning his second term in the White House the President-elect said on X recently that Syria was “not our fight”.

However, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin told a press conference on Thursday the American military was still needed in the region to protect detention camps holding tens of thousands of former ISIS fighters.

A Kurdish-Syrian former guard at the camps told the Daily Express the decision of Begum’s release could be taken out of the West’s control.

“If HTS and the Turks get close to the prison camps, the SDF could release all the prisoners”, he said.

“If they feel they can’t defend the camps because they need to defend their homes and loved ones, they will open the gates of hell.

“Tens of thousands of ISIS terrorists could walk free, the West won’t know where they are going, is that what wants?”

According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 37 people died in fighting between the Turkish-backed government forces and the SDF in clashes on Tuesday.

Unverified reports from Kurdish-controlled media also report Turkish airstrikes were carried out in the Rojava region, where Begum and ISIS fighters are being held, leaving at least 12 people dead in recent attacks.

The bombing has included strikes on the town of Derik, just a few miles from Begum’s camp and only a few miles from the Turkey-Syria border.

British filmmaker Andrew Drury has visited Begum in her camp six times and said the attacks on the SDF could mean “Shamima could be running free in days”.

“Shamima now, because of Trump, is the closest she has ever been to getting out”, he said.

“This new Syrian government is backed by President Erdoğan in Turkey and he’s best mates with Trump. The jihadists have got Syria back.

“They (HTS) took Assad out quickly, who is to say they won’t get to these prisons and release everyone if the Kurds are not there, the leader of the HTS was in ISIS.

“The gates will just be left open, and not just Shamima’s camp, al-Hawl too, where thousands of barbaric male ISIS terrorists are held.”

Speaking exclusively to the Daily Express ‘s Senior Director for Counterterrorism, Sebastian Gorka, denied previous reports he had said anyone who wants to be a “serious ally” of the US should take back their prisoners from Syria.

Mr Gorka told this newspaper: “Protecting the innocent and bringing justice to evil-doers is my priority as Senior Director for Counterterrorism in President Trump’s second Administration.

“I will not tell Prime Minister Starmer, or any other of America’s allies what they should or should not do with their own citizens. However, protecting the innocent and fighting evil is an objective every decent person should agree with.”

Britain’s most infamous former ISIS bride, Shamima Begum, is held in al-Roj camp alongside around 20 British women, 40 children, as well as thousands of ISIS female detainees.

Begum left Britain, using her sister’s passport, with her two closest friends during the half-term break in February 2015. It’s believed both her friends died in the war against Islamic State.

She has been held in the camp close to the Turkish border since 2019 when she was captured by Kurdish forces as she fled the allied bombardment and destruction of the ISIS-controlled Syrian town of Bāghūz.

Begum gave birth to her third child in a detention camp, but devastatingly the infant died, as did her previous two children born under ISIS all before their second birthdays.

It was in 2019 when Begum, then aged 19, gave a series of notorious interviews. Speaking to the Times she said she had seen “beheaded heads” in bins and it “did not faze her”. In an interview with the the then teenager, when asked about the 2017 Manchester terror attacks which killed 22 people, including children, said it was “kind of retaliation” and it was “fair justification” for allied attacks on Islamic State.

Begum’s family have appealed for her return to the UK, but her Bangladeshi father Ahmed Ali, 60, said he was “on the side of the government” over the decision to cancel her British passport.

Sajid Javid, who was Home Secretary when Begum had her citizenship removed, alluded to potential acts she may have carried out under Islamic State. He said in a previous interview that if people knew what he knew then they would “have made exactly the same decision, of that I have no doubt”.

The Bangladeshi government has previously denied Begum was a dual national and said there was “no question of her being allowed to enter into Bangladesh”.

Begum’s Dutch husband and father of her three children, Yago Riedijk, who she met when she was just 15 and he was 23, is being held at al-Hawl camp, around 90miles south of her camp, alongside tens of thousands of male former jihadists.

Mr Drury added: “When the HTS get there they will just let these men walk free back into society and we’ll have no idea where they are going, they could just jump on a boat and cross the Channel.

“Who knows, maybe even Shamima will get on one of those boats.”

Home Office figures reveal more than 4,000 of the illegal immigrants who crossed the Channel on small boats this year were Syrian nationals.

Speaking to Good Morning Britain Foreign Secretary David Lammy insisted despite the calls from the incoming US administration that “Shamima Begum will not be coming back to the UK”.

He said: “It’s gone right through the courts. She’s not a UK national. We will not be bringing her back to the UK. We’re really clear about that.

“We will act in our security interests. And many of those in those camps are dangerous, are radicals.

“Some of them, if they were to return to the UK, would have to be, frankly, jailed as soon as they arrived.”

Former Home Secretary Sajid Javid stripped Begum of her UK citizenship on national security grounds in 2019.

Despite repeated attempts to overturn the decision, Begum lost her final bid in British courts this year. Her lawyers have vowed to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights.

Speaking to a press conference on Thursday US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said there are as many as 8,000-10,000 ISIS fighters in the detention camps in Syria, and at least 2,000 of them are considered to be very dangerous.