Coalition Member's İntel Officer Aided British Girls İn Joining Isıl"

An intelligence officer from a coalition member country has been detained in Turkey for assisting three British teenage girls to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said March 12.

"We have learnt that the British girls were helped by an intelligence officer from a coalition member country" Çavuşoğlu said in a televised interview without stating the country. The person who aided the crossing has been captured, he added.

The country is neither an EU member nor the United States, said Çavuşoğlu, adding that he had briefed British Foreign Minister Philip Hammond about the case.

Hammond responded by saying "as usual," Çavuşoğlu stated.

Three teenage girls from London feared to have run off to join ISIL are believed to have crossed into Syria from Turkey, British police said.

Close friends Kadiza Sultana, 16, and 15-year-olds Shamima Begum and Amira Abase boarded a flight from London Gatwick to Istanbul on Feb. 17.

Turkey, which has been accused by its Western allies of failing to do enough to stop jihadists crossing into Syria from its territory, had earlier accused Britain of failing to provide information about the girls sooner.

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