Turkey holds suspected Syria-bound UK woman

ISTANBUL - Associated Press

A Turkish government official says that authorities are holding a 21-year-old British woman who was suspected of trying to travel to conflict zones in Syria.
                   
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of government rules against speaking without prior authorization.
                   
The woman was detained at a bus stop in Ankara on March 16 and is being held pending deportation hearings.

Three British teenagers who were suspected of trying to travel to Syria were released on bail late March 15 after being questioned for 24 hours on suspicion of preparing acts of terrorism, police said.
       
Two 17-year-old boys from northwest London and a man aged 19 were detained by authorities in Turkey on Friday and were deported to Britain on Saturday, where they were promptly arrested by counter-terrorism officers.
       
"They have been bailed to return to a central London police station pending further enquiries," a spokesman for London's Metropolitan Police announced late Sunday.
       
The dramatic events come just weeks after three schoolgirls left London to join Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants in Syria, the latest of an estimated 600 Britons believed to have made the journey since the Syrian conflict began.
      
The Times newspaper reported that the parents of the two younger boys had alerted police to their disappearance after they failed to return home after Friday prayers.
      
A Turkish official confirmed that the two boys were detained by security services based on information from Britain.
       
By contrast the 19-year-old, identified as MAA, was detected by Turkish airport police checking passengers arriving in Istanbul on a flight from Barcelona, the official said.
       
Both British and Turkish officials said they were believed to be heading for Syria.
                       
The success of the British and Turkish authorities in getting the teenagers home this weekend contrasts with the failure to stop three girls reaching Syria earlier this year.