UK girls helped by spy from anti-Islamic State coalition: Turkish minister

ANKARA - Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was quoted as saying on Thursday that a spy working for a country in the US-led coalition fighting Islamic State helped three British girls thought to have crossed into Syria via Turkey.

"Do you know who was the person who helped these girls? This person was caught. It turned out to be someone who worked in the intelligence services of a country in the coalition," state-run Anatolian news agency reported Cavusoglu as saying in an interview with broadcaster A Haber.

Thousands of foreigners from more than 80 nations including Britain, other parts of Europe, China and the United States have joined the ranks of Islamic State and other radical groups in Syria and Iraq, many crossing through Turkey.

Turkey has said it needs more information from foreign intelligence agencies to intercept them, pointing to cases such as the three London schoolgirls who fled Britain to join Islamic State last month.