The baby son of Shamima Begum – the east London girl who went to Syria to live under ISIS – has died, a spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) confirmed.
The Kurdish SDF group, which runs the refugee camp where the teenager has been staying, confirmed the death yesterday evening.
The lawyer representing the family of Ms Begum, Tasnime Akunjee, also confirmed the death on Twitter.
Baby Jarrah who was less than three weeks old died of pneumonia, according to a medical certificate.
Ms Begum left Britain in 2015 with two friends from Bethnal Green, east London when she was 15.
She was found in a Syrian refugee camp last month by a Sunday Times journalist, who she told in an interview that she wanted to return to the UK.
Her Dutch husband, a former ISIS fighter called Yago Riedijk, is being detained at a nearby prison and has been informed of his son’s death.
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A paramedic working for the Kurdish Red Crescent in the camp told the BBC that baby Jarrah was experiencing serious breathing difficulties.
The medical worker added that the baby taken to a doctor on Thursday morning before being transferred to hospital, along with his mother, but died at 13:30 local time that day.
Ms Begum has now returned to the camp where her baby son was buried on Thursday.
She said she had previously lost two other children and named her newborn son Jarrah after her first child.
Due to the child being born before his mother’s UK citizenship was revoked by the Home Office, Jarrah would still be considered British.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid previously said that the revocation of Ms Begum’s citizenship would not apply to her son.
A UK government spokesman said the death of any child was “tragic and deeply distressing for the family”.
The spokesman said the government had consistently advised against travelling to Syria and would “continue to do whatever we can to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism and travelling to dangerous conflict zones”.
