Husbands of UK women feared to be in Syria plead for them to come home

Bradford, England (CNN)The husbands of British sisters who have gone missing with their children pleaded tearfully Tuesday for their families to come home amid fears they have headed to Syria, which is ravaged by terrorism and war.

"You know, Mariya, I love you. I don't know what to say," said Akhtar Iqbal, the husband of Sugra Dawood, addressing his young daughter at a televised press conference in Britain. "I'm shaking and I miss you. It's been too many days. I don't where you are. Please come back home."

Then he teared up as he addressed his whole family, "I miss you, I love you, all of you. I love you a lot. I can't live without you. Please, please call me. "

Three sisters and their nine children from northern England disappeared while on a trip to the Middle East.

The husbands of two of the sisters appealed for help in tracking the family down amid concerns the sisters could be trying to join a brother in Syria.

"Please contact me," Mohammad Shoaib begged his wife, Khadija Dawood, at the press conference. "I am not angry. ... They are young kids, 7 and 5. And you know I love you so much."

The husband of the third sister did not appear, as he is not in the UK.

Balaal Khan, a lawyer acting for the Dawood family, said the three missing women and their children, ages 3 to 15, had traveled to Saudi Arabia on an Islamic pilgrimage on May 28.

But instead of returning home to the city of Bradford, in northern England, as expected Thursday, they disappeared.

They have not been in touch since June 9, and their cell phones have not been active, either. Nor have their social media profiles been updated in the past week, the statement said.

The sisters have been named as Khadija Dawood, Sugra Dawood and Zohra Dawood, all in their 30s.

Khadija Dawood's two children are Maryam Siddiqui, 7, and Muhammad Haseeb, 5; Sugra Dawood's five children are Junaid Ahmed Iqbal, Ibrahim Iqbal, Zaynab Iqbal, Mariya Iqbal and Ismaeel Iqbal, ages 15 to 3; and Zohra Dawood's two children are Haafiyah Binte Zubair, 8, and Nurah Binte Zubair, 5.

Khan, the lawyer, said all 12 boarded a flight from Medina, Saudi Arabia, to Istanbul on June 9. Early reports that two of the children failed to board the plane were wrong, he said.

The lawyer told journalists that there were no family problems and the husbands had no clue their wives were about to disappear. The families practice a moderate version of Islam, and there had been no indications of radicalization, he said.

He said that a trip to Syria was only one possible theory for the family's disappearance. But he mentioned, as well, that there were concerns about how the women had been able to buy tickets from Saudi Arabia to Turkey.