UK runaway schoolgirls' family demand Scotland Yard apology

The family of the three runaway schoolgirls from London believed to have joined Islamic State extremists in Syria have demanded an apology from Scotland Yard over its handling of the case, leading to the disappearance of the trio.
The demand comes after the Metropolitan Police wrongly claimed the families had known that a close friend of the girls was already in Syria before they disappeared from London last month.
The families insist that if they had known, they may have been able to stop Shamima Begum and Amira Abase, both 15, and Kadiza Sultana, 16.
They flew to Istanbul on February 17 and according to Sky News reports are now in a house in the Syrian city of Raqqa.

"The families have expressed that the deepest source of upset in this affair has been the failure by the police to inform them of the fact that the first girl to go missing had gone to Syria - a fact that was only known to them after their own children had also gone missing," said Tasnime Akunjee, the solicitor for the girls' parents.
"It is precisely the failure to communicate this key piece of information which disabled the family from intervention in the children's plans," he said.

On Friday, the girls' families criticised police for not passing on "vital" information, they say may have helped them to intervene in the trio's plans.

The Met had to amend a statement on the issue after initially saying that the families had been informed by the deputy head of the girls' school that a fellow pupil had disappeared to Syria in December.
It later clarified that following further discussions with Bethnal Green Academy in east London school it emerged that the deputy head had only informed them that the girl was missing.
Police said all of the girls had been treated as potential witnesses who may have had information about their friend.
In February, the girls were also given letters to take to their parents asking permission for counter-terrorism detectives to take handwritten statements about their friend's lifestyle and beliefs.

The letters, which made it clear that the girls were not being investigated, were found hidden in their bedrooms only after the three had left home.
Yesterday Met Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe admitted that "with the benefit of hindsight" officers should have communicated directly to the families.
As many as 60 young British women including many teenagers are believed to have left UK to become the brides of jihadists fighting in Syria and Iraq.