British mother convicted of joining IS in Syria

London, Jan 30: A British mother has been convicted of terrorism offences after fleeing Britain with her one-year-old child to join the Islamic State (IS) in Syria, Britain's West Midlands Police announced on Friday.

Tareena Shakil, a 26-year-old woman from Burton-upon-Trent in England, was found guilty of being a member of IS and encouraging acts of terrorism at Birmingham Crown Court on Friday, Xinhua reported.

The mother boarded a plane to Turkey in October 2014 with her young boy, where she then crossed the border into Syria and spent the next three months there, police said.

"She denied joining Daesh but her membership was proven as a result of enquiries carried out by the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit and other agencies," West Midlands Police said in a statement.

Police noted that detectives were able to show Shakil had become a member of the extremist group and was set to become a jihadi bride. A photograph uncovered by police showed her posing in Syria underneath an IS flag.

She was arrested by counter-terrorism officers when she returned to Britain on February 18 in 2015 after landing at Heathrow Airport, while her son was taken into care, police said.

The woman was also found guilty of sending a series of tweets before she left the Britain "encouraging the public to commit acts of terrorism", police added.

IANS