Nine British medical students have travelled to Syria to work in hospitals in Islamic State-held areas, it emerged last night.
Four women and five men entered the country last week, keeping their plans secret from relatives until shortly before they crossed the border.
Turkish politician Mehmet Al Ediboglu told The Observer: ‘We all assume they are in Tel Abyad now, which is under Isis control.


'The conflict out there is fierce, so medical help must be needed.’
He added: 'Let's not forget about the fact that they are doctors; they went there to help, not to fight. So this case is a little bit different.'
Mr Ediboglu, who has met the students’ families, said they felt the young Britons had been ‘cheated [and] brainwashed’.
Volunteer: Lena Abdulqadir has gone to Syria to work in ISIS controlled hospitals
Volunteer: Lena Abdulqadir has gone to Syria to work in ISIS controlled hospitals
The group, in their late teens and early 20s, are all Britons of Sudanese descent studying at the University of Medical Sciences and Technology in Khartoum, where it is feared they were radicalised.
They have been named as Hisham Mohammed Fadlallah, Lena Maumoon Abdulqadir, Tamer Ahmed Ebu Sebah, Rowan Kamal Zine El Abidine, Sami Ahmed Kadir, Ismail Hamadoun, Nada Sami Kader, Mohamed Osama Badri Mohammed and Tasneem Suleyman.
They have been joined by two other medics from the United States and Canada, also of Sudanese origin.
Mr Ediboglu wrote on his Facebook page: 'Eleven doctors - nine British and two Sudanese - came to Turkey a week ago to join ISIS.
'The families of the young people have been in Turkey to search for them and bring them back.
'Our greatest hope is to save the doctors from ISIS and reunite them with their families.'
Mr Ediboglu added: ‘These kids were born and raised in England, but they were sent to Sudan to study at medical school.’
The nine flew to Istanbul on March 12, he said, and took a bus to the Syrian border the next day.
The families were alerted only when one of the students, Lena Maumoon Abdulqadir, 19, who was born in Northallerton, North Yorkshire, sent a Whatsapp message to her sister saying she wanted to ‘volunteer to help wounded Syrian people’.
Accompanied with a grinning selfie, the youngster is reported as having written to her sister: 'Don’t worry about us, we’ve reached Turkey and are on our way to volunteer helping wounded Syrian people.'

Her father is thought to have rushed to Turkey immediately after learning of her plans. Speaking to Turkey's Birgun newspaper, he said: 'She was living in [Africa] a land which needs a lot of doctors everywhere.
'Why would she go all the way to Syria for volunteering?'
A friend of Tasneem Suleyman Huseyin in Khartoum told the BBC the young woman and her friends had 'radically changed' a few years ago and started wearing the full veil, which 'shocked a lot of their friends' in the British Sudanese community.


Ahmed Babikir, students' dean at Khartoum's private University of Medical Sciences told AFP five students university were missing after travelling to Turkey.
OTHER BRITISH TEENS WHO HAVE TRAVELLED TO SYRIA TO JOIN ISIS
In February, three east London schoolgirls fled from their homes, reportedly to become jihadi brides in Syria.
Kadiza Sultana, 16, Shamima Begum, 15, and Amira Abase, 15 were spotted on CCTV in Turkey, where they are thought to have been ushered over the border by a 'fixer' who provided them with false documents.
They are believed to have followed in the footsteps of their friend Sharmeena Begum, who went to the same school as the girls in Bethnal Green, and fled to the region before them.
Last week, jihadi twin Jamila Henry, 21, was caught allegedly trying to enter Syria, having reportedly already lived in Raqqa, the group's de facto capital, with her seven-month-old son.
She was arrested at Luton Airport when she landed back into the UK.
Earlier, three teenage boys had also been stopped in Turkey, apparently trying to enter Syria to join ISIS.
It came as five teenage girls and a 16-year-old boy were banned from travelling abroad after showing an interest in joining the terror group.
'They all have British passports and are of Sudanese origin,' he said.