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June 29, 2015

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12 university students left for Turkey to join IS group

Twelve students including British, Canadian, Sudanese and US citizens are feared to have left Khartoum for Turkey to try to join the Islamic State group, their university said yesterday.

Another group of British students of Sudanese origin from the same private University of Medical Sciences and Technology travelled to Turkey in March and it is believed they crossed into Syria.

鈥淲e confirmed reports from multiple parties that 12 medical students at the university left for Turkey on Friday,鈥 the dean for students, Dr Ahmed Babikir, said.

Khartoum airport authorities confirmed the group had flown to Turkey and the students鈥 families said they had not seen them since Friday and were unable to find their passports, Babikir added.

It was likely they were trying to reach Syria to join IS because they were still sitting their final exams and had not warned relatives they were leaving, he said.

鈥淟ogic says that they travelled to join Daesh,鈥 Babikir said, using the Arabic acronym for IS.

Seven of the missing students are British, two Canadians, one American and two are Sudanese, he said, although all are understood to be of Sudanese origin.

Three of the 12 are women, Babikir added, declining to provide any names.

The British embassy in Khartoum confirmed that 鈥渟even British nationals have travelled to Turkey from Sudan鈥.

鈥淲e are providing consular assistance and are working closely with Turkish authorities to establish their whereabouts,鈥 said embassy press officer Ishtiaq Ghafoor, without giving further details about the students.


 

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