‘Canadian spy smuggled me into Syria,’ says UK girl who joined ISIS

LONDON (AA) – Shamima Begum, a schoolgirl who left the UK to join the ISIS, has said she was smuggled into Syria by a Canadian intelligence agent.

Mohammed al-Rasheed posed as a human smuggler when he helped Begum and two other British girls travel to Syria in 2015. Begum was 15 years old at the time and was accompanied by Kadiza Sultana, 16, and 15-year-old Amira Abase.

Rasheed played a major role in bringing foreign fighters into Syria, while also providing information to Canadian intelligence authorities on their movements, according to the BBC, which gained access to a dossier on the Canadian spy and his undercover work as a smuggler.

Rasheed was arrested by authorities in Türkiye’s southern city of Sanliurfa shortly after he smuggled Begum into Syria. After his arrest, Rasheed told law enforcement that he was gathering information on everyone he helped and “passing this information to the Canadian Embassy in Jordan,” the BBC report said.

The UK revoked Begum’s citizenship in 2019 and she is currently held in a detention camp in northeastern Syria. Her lawyers, who have launched legal proceedings to get her back to the UK, said it was “shocking” that a Canadian intelligence asset helped in trafficking young girls.

UK authorities have yet to comment on the issue, with a government spokesman saying “it is our long-standing policy that we do not comment on operational intelligence or security matters,” the BBC report said.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the government “will follow up on the claims.”