Eleven medical students and medical school graduates, including an American, are believed to have traveled to Syria to work in hospitals controlled by ISIS, a member of Turkey’s parliament said Sunday.
The group — seven British, two Sudanese and one Canadian, plus the American — traveled through Turkey on March 12, Mehmet Ali Ediboglu, a member of parliament from the Hatay border region, told NBC News.
Ediboglu told Reuters that the students and graduates, who range in age from 19 to 25, have been telling their families over social media that they are fine and staying “at a beautiful house.” The families reached out to Turkish officials to help find the young men and women, Ediboglu said.
“God forbid, they might be killed by an attack any minute. That’s their concern. And more importantly they want to know what their children are doing in Syria,” he told Reuters. “My assumption is that they have gone to Tel Abyad, because I know that the hospital there is extremely busy.”
The British Foreign Office said in a statement that it was providing consular assistance to the families and has been in touch with Turkish police.
IN-DEPTH
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- ISIS Girls: U.K. Police Defend Actions Over Teens Who Flew to Syria
— Ammar Cheikhomar
