London teen believed to have been killed in airstrike

LONDON – One of three London schoolgirls who traveled to an area controlled by the Islamic State group in Syria to become “jihadi brides” is believed to have been killed in an air strike, a lawyer for her family says.

Tasnime Akunjee told the BBC that Kadiza Sultana’s family had been told that she died in the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa several weeks ago. He said the family was “devastated.”

London schoolgirls Kadiza Sultana, left, Shamima Begum, center, and Amira Abase Pass through security at Gatwick airport, before catching a flight to Turkey. A lawyer said Sultana, one of the three who traveled to Islamic State-controlled area of Syria to become "jihadi brides," is believed to have been killed in an airstrike.

The Islamic State group is also known as ISIS or ISIL.

He said the death has not been confirmed. Akunjee did not immediately respond Friday to messages from The Associated Press.

Sultana was 16 when she and classmates Shamima Begum and Amira Abase – both 15 – traveled to Syria in February 2015 without telling their families. Their distraught relatives made emotional public appeals for them to come back.

ITV News, which first reported Sultana’s death on Thursday, broadcast phone calls between Sultana and her sister in Britain, in which Sultana said she felt wanted to return to Britain but could see no way of escape.

“I don’t have a good feeling. I feel scared,” Sultana said in one call.

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