A BRITISH COUPLE, who were travelling with their four small children, have been arrested in Turkey attempting to get to Syria.
Asif Malik and his partner, Sara Kiran, were arrested in Ankara and their four children were also taken into custody.
An official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of Turkish rules requiring prior authorisation for comment, told the Associated Press that the family had been taken into custody on foot of an alert from British authorities.
Malik was believed to have left England for Syria to join the Islamic State group, the official said.
The children range in age from 12 months to 7 years old. British police had appealed for information about the family who haven’t been in England since early this month.
British authorities had said that there was no suggestion the family was doing any fighting in Syria, and it was unclear whether they were sympathetic to members of the Islamic State group or Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. But the Turkish official said that authorities believe the family was seeking to go to territory controlled by IS.
The official said that British authorities provided information to Turkish counterparts and that police were able to track the family from the Greek border, where they crossed by bus last Thursday.
Turkish officials have recently praised cooperation with Britain on a stream of people travelling between the two countries en route to Syria.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say