'Mother kidnaps two Dutch children and joins Islamic State'
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A Chechen mother has taken her two young children to Syria to join Islamic State, Dutch prosecutors said on Monday, in the first known case in the Netherlands of kidnapping by one parent to join the militant group.
The divorced father, a Dutchman, and Dutch authorities were unable to prevent the 33-year-old woman, who was not identified, from leaving the country. They probably travelled across Europe with false passports and had the help of foreign recruiters.
The mother, originally from Russia's restive southern province of Chechnya, and her two Dutch children, aged 7 and 8, had been living in the southern town of Maastricht, but have not been seen since October 29 last year.
The head of the children's Islamic school alerted the father that the mother had printed plane tickets for herself and the children for flights to Greece. They are now believed to be in Raqqa, an Islamic State stronghold in northeastern Syria.
