Two teenage girls who left Austria to travel to Syria and become "jihadi brides" have reportedly grown disillusioned by life with Isis and told their families they want to return home.Helluva way to get a date.
When they first arrived in the Middle East via Turkey, 15-year-old Sabina Selimovic and 17-year-old Samra Kesinovic were used as poster girls for the militant group, and social media posts purported to show how much fun they were having.
What, no pics of all the jihadis having fun, too?
Interpol became involved when the girls left Austria in April, despite the fact that they wrote a note telling their parents: "Don't look for us. We will serve Allah – and we will die for him."
I don't think death is what they have in mind for you. At least as long as you are nice and obediant.
But now the Austrian government has said the girls want to come back, and have been in contact with their families, the Austrian newspaper Oesterreich reported.
I wonder how much the fathers will be paying in child support.
Speaking to the paper, an official with the home office said that escaping Isis in Syria "after such a long time" would be extremely difficult.
Austrian media reports suggest that the girls have been married to Chechen fighters and that they may be pregnant – and even if they could flee, Austria's laws bar them from returning once they have joined a foreign war.
As minors?
An unnamed security service source told the Austrian Times: "It is clear that whoever is operating their pages it probably is not the girls, and that they are being used for propaganda."
Sabina and Samra grew up in Vienna in Bosnian immigrant families, according to the Austrian media, but their views are believed to have become increasingly radical in recent years. In total, around 130 Austrian nationals are believed to have become foreign fighters for Isis.