Shamima Begum 'lies about death of second ISIS bride to help her go underground'

ISIS bride Shamima Begum has been accused of lying about the death of another radicalised schoolgirl. Austrian intelligence reportedly believe her alleged lies to be part of calculated plan to help the extremist "go underground".

Begum, 19, who joined ISIS when she fled East London for Syria, is currently being held in a refugee camp and hopes to return to the UK with her baby son.

From the camp, she recently told British media of the alleged fate of Austrian Samra Kesinovic, who she said died in the old Caliphate capital of Raqqa.

Samra Kesinovic was just 16 when she left Austria with her 15-year-old friend Sabina Selimovic to join the terrorist group in Syria in April 2014.

According to Begum, Samra died in Raqqa at the hands of ISIS terrorists who clubbed her to death with a hammer in front of other women after she allegedly tried to escape.

Begum said: "Her execution served as a deterrent. My friend Kadiza also wanted to escape - but she did not dare after that. She died shortly after in a bombing raid."

But according to Austrian newspaper 'Oesterreich', which cited sources from within the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counterterrorism (BVT), both Sabina and Samra are still alive.

Both women, now adults, had children with their terrorist husbands and are now reportedly being held in a camp near the Syrian city of Idlib, wanting to make their way back to Austria.

One of them is said to have played an active role in the barbaric atrocities of ISIS.

Legally, the two - as Austrian citizens - have the right to return with their children.

Unlike another ISIS bride who filed a request with the authorities to return to Austria, the two never contacted anyone to make their intentions known.

Anonymous sources within the Austrian intelligence services cited by 'Oesterreich' said that rumours of Samra's death were "deliberately launched to allow her disappearance" as they assume both young women want to go underground.

According to reports, civil servants at the Austrian Foreign Ministry want to help women and children from Austria return home, although Interior Minister Herbert Kickl of the far-right Austrian Freedom Party (FPO) is vehemently opposed to this.

Sabina's mother Senada Selimovic, who has Bosnian roots, has previously always said in interviews with Austrian papers that she thought she would see her daughter come back one day.

She said: "At first she wrote almost every day, and we also received telephone calls. She told me that she was fine and that I did not need to worry."

But she said she has heard nothing from her daughter in recent years.

According to the BVT, Sabina and Samra were also in frequent contact over WhatsApp with their friends back in Vienna when they first arrived in the Caliphate, sending pictures of themselves walking around the area covered from head to toe in a burka.

The teenagers reportedly first wrote about their wishes to return to Austria to their friends in chat messages intercepted by intelligence officers in 2015.

Both Sabina and Samra were dubbed the "pinup poster girls for jihad" as they featured on ISIS websites carrying AK-47s surrounded by armed men.

Sabina and Samra were recruited by hate preacher Ebu Tejma, the alias of 35-year-old Bosnian-born religious leader Mirsad Omerovic, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence.

Sabina's mother, who has Bosnian roots as well, thinks that her daughter is still alive and well despite the so-called Caliphate having almost completely collapsed.

Most of Ebu Tejma's jihadist recruitment network has since been dismantled by Austrian police.

Austrian prosecutors said that Ebu Tejma travelled Europe "like a pop star on tour", being spotted driving top-of-the-range sports cars bought with the money he raised from believers.

Tejma was convicted in July 2016 for the promotion of jihad and the recruitment of more than 160 fighters for IS in Syria.

The prosecutors also said they had found a guide to making bombs on his computer.