A 16-year-old French girl attempted to fly to Syria to join a militant Islamist group and was arrested at an airport in France, according to Gawker. The girl's parents allegedly had no idea what she was planning.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said in a statement that the teenager was arrested before she could board a flight to Turkey before heading to Syria. A 20-year-old man was also arrested for allegedly recruiting the young girl and paying for her flight, according to NBC News.
France estimates that 800 of its residents have left to join Islamist groups in Syria. Cazeneuve urged parents who suspect their kids are displaying signs of "violent radicalization" to call a hotline that he created in the spring. Since then, 300 reports have been called in, a quarter of which were regarding children and 45 percent of which involved girls.
Last week, two other French girls, 15 and 17, were arrested after allegedly trying to fly to Syria to become jihadists. Not much information has been released about the teens or their motives.
An American named Abdirahmaan Muhumed, 29, was killed last week after fighting for ISIS in Syria. He was a father of nine from Minnesota that was part of the Twin Cities' Somal-American population that ISIS had been recruiting fighters and brides from, according to Gawker.
France's Muslim community is the biggest in the European Union, with 5 million members, according to Reuters.
