Saudi Arabia said on Friday it had prevented three Saudi women and seven children from traveling through Lebanon to join the conflict in neighboring Syria, the Saudi state news agency SPA reported.

The three sisters and their children were detained by Lebanese authorities in Beirut and flown back to Saudi Arabia on Thursday after the husband of one of the women told police they planned to join the war,

Police said the husband, who was the father of three of the children, had tipped them off on Monday that his wife had left. The children were aged between one and 10 years old the statement added.

The Saudi public has grown increasingly angry at bloody images broadcast of Syria’s violence and the government has sought to stop its citizens from joining what some of them see as a holy war against the Syrian government.

Many of the foreign fighters flocking to Syria to join groups like ISIS are Arabs from the Middle East and Africa, although militants have attracted fighters from across different countries ranging from Norway to Uzbekistan.