British officials had said soon after they traveled to Syria that the women would be allowed to return home without facing charges because there was no evidence they had committed terrorism offenses. Ben Wallace, Britain’s security minister, said this past week that British officials would not help rescue Ms. Begum because it was too dangerous to provide consular services in Syria. She has been living in Al Hawl refugee camp in northeastern Syria since leaving the village of Baghuz, the last speck of land under Islamic State control in Syria, as Kurdish-led forces allied with the United States closed in. Her Dutch husband, an Islamic State fighter whom she married soon after arriving in Raqqa, Syria, surrendered to Syrian fighters allied to the Kurdish-led forces. Thousands of people have been streaming out of the Islamic State’s fast-shrinking territory in recent weeks.

Source: New York Times February 17, 2019 12:45 UTC