Five London teens quizzed by anti-terror police over 'plan to fight for Isis in Syria and Iraq'

Five London teenagers were being questioned by anti-terror police today on suspicion of planning to flee Britain to fight for Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

The five - including a 15-year-old schoolboy - were arrested yesterday at homes across London.

Counter terror detectives are investigating alleged plans by the teenagers, four of whom are school children, to travel to join the jihadist terror group after communicating with each other online.

In a co-ordinated operation early yesterday, two youths, aged 16 and 17, were held at separate addresses in south London while two others, aged 17 and 19, were arrested at the same address in west London.

A boy aged 15 was arrested last night in east London while a further address in Lambeth was also searched in connection with the opoeration.

Detectives are examining how the teenagers, who are all known to each other, came into contact.

The arrests came after Scotland Yard’s Counter Terrorism Command searched the teenagers’ addresses in London last month.

Detectives are thought to have recovered a number of phones and computers during these raids.

The Met said the five were arrested on suspicion of the preparation of terrorist acts and were being interviewed at a central London police station today.

Detectives are examining if any of the five had made contact with jihadists in Syria and or if the group had hatched a plot to travel online.

The arrests follow the case of three London schoolgirls who ran away from home to join Islamic State in February 2015.

Shamima Begum and Amira Abase, both 15 at the time, and Khadiza Sultana, then 16, all fellow pupils at Bethnal Green Academy, disappeared from their homes in east London and flew to Turkey, before crossing the border into war torn Syria.

Khadiza is thought to have been killed in an air strike in Syria last year but the fate of the other two girls is unknown.

Today it also emerged that a Briton fighting with Islamic State blew himself up in a suicide mission against troops advancing on western Mosul.

The terror group said a man using the name Abu Zakariya al-Britani was one of two fighters who died attacking Iraqi troops int he battle for the city.