Three British sisters and their nine children who failed to return home from a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia may have gone to Syria instead, authorities said on Tuesday.
The Dawood sisters, all from Bradford in northern England, were reported missing five days ago, along with their children, who range in age from three to 15.
“Their families are gravely worried about them and want them home,” said Russ Foster, Assistant Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police.
Their case comes amid concern about Britons leaving Europe to join Islamic State, in particular the number of women and children.
British authorities estimate that at least 700 citizens have traveled to war-torn Syria and Iraq. Police said in February that at that point families had alerted them about 26 women and 61 people under the age of 21 suspected of going to Syria.
Syria-related investigations have surged sixfold in the past year and a half, authorities say, with arrests several times a week, on average.
The women, Khadija, Sugra and Zohra, and their children missed their flight home on June 11. Authorities are looking into whether the women left Saudi Arabia to join their brother in Syria, said a person familiar with the investigation.
The brother, whose name hasn’t been disclosed, is believed to have left the U.K. for Syria over a year ago, the person said.
Specialist counterterror officers are working with their Turkish counterparts to establish whether the sisters used Turkey as a staging point to get across the border into war-torn northern Syria, police said.
At a news conference in a Bradford hotel on Tuesday, two of the women’s husbands made a tearful appeal to their wives, imploring them to return home with their children.
“I am not angry. Everything is fine. Please come back to me. Please come back to our normal life,” said Mohammed Shoaib. Alongside him, Akhtar Iqbal choked with emotion as he tried to reach out to his wife, Sugra.
“I’m shaking and I miss you. I cannot live without you,” said Mr. Iqbal.
The men’s lawyer, Balaal Khan, declined to comment when asked if the women had gone to join their brother in Syria. He said that his clients hadn’t been in contact with their brother-in-law and that the last time they spoke to their wives and children was on June 8, when they were still in the Saudi city of Medina.
However, in the news conference, Mr. Khan addressed the brother directly: “If they are there, send them back,” said Mr. Khan.
Separately, two men and three women from Birmingham accused of recruiting for Islamic State were charged with terrorism offenses at a court in London. One of the five is accused of trying to join another person who had already taken up arms with Islamic State in Syria, while police believe the rest of the group tried to help him and others get there.
All five will appear at London’s criminal court later this month.