Recordings emerge of final phone conversations between family members and Khadiza Sultana, 17, who fled to Syria from London with two pals during the Easter holidays last year.
A London schoolgirl killed in an airstrike in Syria was too terrified to flee ISIS after a fellow jihadi bride was beaten to death – for trying to escape the clutches of Islamic State.
Khadiza Sultana, 17, revealed her fears in a phone call home – when she also begged to speak to her mum – it emerged last night.
Recordings of the chilling final phone conversations were released after news broke that the schoolgirl-turned-jihadi bride has been killed by an airstrike
In them she admits to her sister: “I don’t have a good feeling. I feel scared.”
When Halima asks how confident she feels about getting out, Khadiza replies: “Zero… Where is Mum? I want to speak to her.”
It is believed Khadiza knew of the likely consquences after Austrian schoolgirl Samra Kesinovic, 17, was beaten to death when caught trying to escape last year after becoming a poster girl for Islamic State after joining them in 2014.
One of three London schoolgirls to flee at the same time last year, Khadiza is now understood to have died in Raqqa after her home was destroyed by a bomb – thought to have been dropped by a Russian plane – in May.
Tasnime Akunjee, the lawyer representing the girls, said the family learned of her death a few weeks ago.
He told ITV News: “Perhaps the only benefit out of this is as a tombstone and a testimony for others of the risks of actually going to a warzone, to dissuade people from ever making that choice.
“Leaving Isis (IS) is like trying to escape from Alcatraz, with a shoot-to-kill order added in,” he added.
She is believed to be the first British female killed in the so-called caliphate.
Last night ITV News – which has had a film crew follow the family – revealed Khadiza had become disillusioned with life in the medieval terror state – and wanted to get back to Britain.
The schoolgirl and two friends Amira Base and Shamima Begum left their families in east London during the Easter school holidays in 2015.
Base and Begum – who were both only 15 years old when they fled – and are believed to still be in Raqqa.
Today Haras Rafiq, managing director of counter-extremism think-tank the Quilliam Foundation, said the remaining teenagers would not be allowed to leave the war-torn country.
He said the only way to escape would be to use smuggling routes or to find someone “sympathetic” to help them reach the border.
But he warned: “Once you are in, they don’t let you out.
“You can’t leave. Nobody can leave. Once you’ve joined ISIS the only way you are allowed to leave is either if you are sent out on a mission outside of the land, or you die. That’s the only way,” he said.
“Once you have sworn the oath of allegiance – that’s it for life as far as they are concerned – so you can’t leave.”
Mr Rafiq said the girls will have been told their friend’s death was “Western propaganda”, and described the battle against extremism as a “war of narratives”.
The trio became some of Britain’s most infamous ISIS recruits and shocked the nation after leaving behind them their A-Level courses – and their loving families – to marry fighters in Syria.
Khadiza’s family were hoping to help to get her out of Raqqa and across the border into Turkey.
But it is now believed she was killed before she could flee, after the property she was staying in was obliterated by the airstrike in May.
Within the interview run on ITV are recordings of phone calls between Halima and her younger sister before her death.
Khadiza tells her sister “I don’t have a good feeling. I feel scared.
“You know the borders are closed right now, so how am I going to get out?
“I am not going to go through PKK [Kurdish forces inside Syria] territory to come out, I am never going to do that, ever.”
Later Halima asks: “How confident are you feeling in terms of getting out?”
Khadiza: “Zero….. Where is Mum? I want to speak to her.”
Speaking straight after the phone call Halima said: “She sounds very terrified.
“She did get very emotional there as well. It feels…I feel really helpless.
“What can I do? It’s really hard. I don’t think she’s ever made a choice by herself.
“That was the first one and a very big one. I just look forward to the next call and that’s what keeps me going.”
It is believed the teenager was inside a residential building when it was struck by the airstrike.
Halima said: “We were expecting this in a way. But at least we know she is in a better place.
“We do not wish her name to come up in the headlines again. She is gone and we would like to respect her wishes.”
The families of all three Bethnal Green schoolgirls made headlines in February 2015 after making a series of desperate public appeals for information on the missing teenagers.
It is believed that all three wed fellow foreigners who were fighting for the Islamic State.
Khadiza’s husband was an American national of Somali origin who died late last year.
All three families were represented at the time of the schoolgirls’ disappearance by lawyer Tasnime Akunjee, who said: “Leaving ISIS is like trying to escape from Alcatraz, with a shoot to kill order added in.
“It’s devastating for the family that it ended like this.
“Perhaps the only benefit out of this is as a tombstone and a testimony for others of the risks of actually going to a warzone, to dissuade people from ever making that choice.”
The Bethnal Green schoolgirls were among more than 800 Britons believed to have left the UK to join ISIS or other militant groups in Syria and Iraq.
It is thought that at least 250 have since returned.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan Howe told MPs last year the Bethnal Green trio would be unlikely to be prosecuted if they returned to Britain unless there was evidence they had committed any specific crimes while with Isis.
The fate of the other two Bethnal Green schoolgirls is still unknown – but it is is believed the pair continue to live in Raqqa.
There is no suggestion that either Abase or Begum have given any hint of disillusionment with ISIS.
Mr Rafiq warned that while the number of people attempting to flee to Syria was decreasing, Ms Sultana’s death would not necessarily act as a deterrent for others.
He said: “The people who go over there are prepared to die.
“They have been indoctrinated to the point that if they die they believe that they are going to go to heaven – that they’re going to get a fast-track.
“These people are disturbed now, these people are disillusioned, these people are terrified, but before they went over there, they didn’t expect this.”
