ISIS kills its Austrian 'poster girl' after she attempts to flee Syria
Samra Kesinovic, 17, who fled to Syria along with her friend Sabina Selimovic, was killed after she was caught attempting to flee Syria by ISIS henchmen.
By DANIEL J. ROTHUpdated: NOVEMBER 28, 2015 20:05ISIS(photo credit: ISLAMIC SOCIAL MEDIA)
An Austrian teenager who fled to Raqqa, Syria in order to join the Islamic fundamentalist terror organization Islamic State was beaten to death after attempting to escape the ISIS stronghold, The Daily Mail reported on Tuesday, citing Austrian newspaper reports.Samra Kesinovic, 17, who fled to Syria along with her friend Sabina Selimovic, was killed after she was caught attempting to flee Syria by ISIS henchmen.Kesinovic and Selimovic became infamous shortly after arriving in Syria in 2014, portrayed by Islamic State propaganda as "poster girls" for the movement.According to The Daily Mail, the pair began their journey to Syria when they flew to the Turkish capital of Ankara in early 2014. They moved quickly to the southern region of Adana near the Syrian border.They were quickly married off to Islamic State fighters soon after arriving in Raqqa, The Daily Mail added. "We received information just recently about two 15-year-old girls, of Bosnian origin, who left Austria, where they had been living in recent years; and everyone, the families and the intelligence services of the two countries, is looking for them," according to David Scharia, a senior Israeli expert of the United Nations Security Council's Counter-Terrorism Committee."Both were recruited by Islamic State. One was killed in the fighting in Syria, the other has disappeared," he added.His confirmation comes three months after the Austrian government said it had informed both sets of parents of the girls that one of them might have been killed, The Daily Mail reported.According to UN estimates, as many 130 Austrians have fled to Syria in order to join Islamic State, at least half of which are of Chechen origin granted asylum after years of conflict with Russia.Austrian Interior Ministry spokesman Alexander Marakovits said that the country has recently seen an alarming increase in Austrian youth fleeing to Islamic State.
"If we can catch them before they leave we have the chance to work with their parents and other institutions to bring the youngsters out of the sphere of influence that prompted them to act in this way the first place," he said."Once they have left the country, even if they then changed their minds, it is then almost impossible to get them back," he added.