According to ITV, the baby of Islamic State
bride Shamima Begum has died, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have confirmed
to ITV News.
The boy, named Jarrah, died
on Thursday after suffering breathing difficulties and a lung infection.
Jarrah was taken to a
doctor in the refugee camp where he and his mother were living, and was then
transferred to a hospital where he later died.
Ms Begum, 19, gave birth to
her son in Al-Hol refugee camp in the middle of February, having already lost
two children.
The teenager's IS fighter
husband, Yago Riedijk, 27, is being held in a Kurdish-run detention centre in
northern Syria.
Ms Begum and her baby had
been held in Al-Hol after fleeing the town of Baghouz, the last remaining area
held by so-called Islamic State as the caliphate crumbles.
However, last week it was
reported that Ms Begum and Jarrah had been moved from the camp in the north of
Syria to another closer to the Iraqi border after the pair were
"threatened" by others in the camp, her family's lawyer said.
After giving numerous
interviews to UK media following her discovery in Al-Hol by a journalist from
The Times, Ms Begum said she regretted speaking to the media and wished she had
kept a low profile.
It was reported that Ms
Begum was moved to a different camp as she had received death threats from
others in Al-Hol after speaking out about her plight.
The SDF is an alliance of
Kurdish, Arab and Assyrian/Syriac militias who are fighting to get rid of the
last vestiges of so-called Islamic State's caliphate.
Ms Begum was 15 when in
February 2015, she and two school friends - Amira Abase, 15, and Kadiza
Sultana, 16 - ran away from home in Bethnal Green, east London to join
so-called Islamic State.
The three girls travelled
to Turkey before crossing the border into Syria.
She resurfaced
heavily-pregnant in a refugee camp in northern Syria last month and spoke of
her desire to return to the UK, as the self-styled caliphate collapsed.
On February 17, her family
announced the boy's birth and said they believed he was "in good
health".
Home Secretary Sajid Javid
stripped Ms Begum of her British citizenship amid a fierce national debate over
whether she should be allowed to return.
Her family, who pledged to
appeal against the decision, also wrote to Mr Javid pleading with him to allow
a safe passage for the boy to come to the UK.
Last month, Mr Javid
confirmed the boy was a British citizen and said he had considered the child's
interest when deciding to revoke Ms Begum's citizenship.
Asked at the time whether
there was any plan for Ms Begum's son, Mr Javid told the Commons Home Affairs
Committee it would be "incredibly difficult" for the Government to
facilitate the return of a child from Syria.
"If it is possible
somehow for a British child to be brought to a place where there is a British
consular presence, the closest place - it might be Turkey for example - in
those circumstances I guess potentially it is possible to arrange for some sort
of help with the consent of the parent," he added.
"Inside Syria, whether
in a camp or maybe somewhere else, there is no British consular presence."
Responding to the news of
the death of Ms Begum's son, the Home Office said: “The death of any child is
tragic and deeply distressing for the family.
“The Foreign and
Commonwealth Office has consistently advised against travel to Syria since
April 2011.
“The Government will
continue to do whatever we can to prevent people from being drawn into
terrorism and travelling to dangerous conflict zones.”
Shadow home secretary Diane
Abbott criticised Mr Javid's decision to revoke Ms Begum's citizenship,
tweeting: "It is against international law to make someone stateless, and
now an innocent child has died as a result of a British woman being stripped of
her citizenship.
"This is callous and
inhumane."
Source
ITV
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