British Police have issued an urgent appeal looking for three schoolgirls after they were reported missing today, believed to be heading to Syria via Turkey to join Islamist fighters.

The three school friends from East London’s Bethnal Green, ages 15 to 16, left their homes before 8:00 a.m. local time Tuesday and met at Gatwick airport in London where they boarded a Turkish Airlines flight, according to a police news release.

"We are reaching out to the girls using the Turkish media and social media,” Britain’s Counter-Terrorism Commander Richard Walton said, “in the hope that they hear our messages, hear our concerns for their safety and have the courage to return now, back to their families who are so worried about them."

The U.S Senior Adviser for Foreign Fighters, Ambassador Thomas Krajeski, said during a news briefing today that young girls traveling to Syria and Iraq were being considered as problematic as those traveling to fight.

“Fighters include people not only picking up a gun, but also going to support Islamists, in some way, including young women who have been attracted to the fight for various reasons and in some cases children,” he said, adding the prospect of fighters returning to their home countries to conduct attacks is of “great concern.”