Islamic State bride Shamima Begum has admitted that she regrets bringing her children up in the deadly terror group Islamic State — after burying three babies in just five months.
In her first interview since the death of her son Jarrah, who she was pregnant with when she first attempted to return to England, Begum said she was "brainwashed" online groomers and militants, reports the Evening Standard.
The 19-year-old, who had her British citizenship stripped amid a fierce row over her request to come back to the UK, pleaded for a "second chance".
The former Bethnal Green schoolgirl fled to join the Islamic State aged 15 and had lost two children prior to the death of her third.
"Since I left Baghouz I really regretted everything I did, and I feel like I want to go back to the UK for a second chance to start my life over again,” Shamima told the Times.
“I was brainwashed. I came here believing everything that I had been told, while knowing little about the truths of my religion.”
Commenting on her having children in Syria, she told the paper: "I do regret having children in the caliphate.
“I came thinking it would be a place of belonging where I could raise a family safely. But it was not a place to have children.”
The teen was moved away from a refugee camp near Baghouz due to apparent risk to her safety from others.
Now staying in al-Roj at a smaller camp with around 600 people, officials say Begum is emerging from her radicalised state, The Times reports.
In previous interviews, where she was heavily criticised for her comments, Begum defended the 2017 Manchester Arena terrorist attack and said "a lot of people should have sympathy for me".
But in her latest interview she said at the time she "still in the brainwashed mentality".
"I still supported them because of what they told me and what they taught me," she said.
Begum also explained how she felt "depressed" when she ran away from her family home in London and that led to her being convinced by radicals she spoke to her online to leave the country.
She spoke of her regret that her relationship with her family was struggling due to her actions and claimed she hoped she could return to rectify it.
Begum was one of three young women who fled the UK for Syria in 2015.
When she first pleaded to for her return Sajid Javid, the Home Secretary, stripped Begum of her citizenship on advice she qualified for Bangladeshi citizenship through her mother.
Bangladesh, however, also refused to take her in, while her lawyer has claimed she does not have dual citizenship.