ISIS bride sisters held in Syria are part of the UK’s biggest jihadi family

Two sisters who are both brides of men who died fighting with ISIS have been revealed to be among the UK’s biggest alleged jihadi family.

Reema and Zara Iqbal, from east London, are both being held in Syria after their Portuguese-born husbands died fighting with the Islamic State.

Reema, 30, once reportedly led Islamist studies in Canning Town and Zara, 28, has three children and is a former college student.

But their sister Samila Iqbal, 32, is reportedly married to Dr Shajul Islam previously accused of kidnapping photojournalist John Cantlie in July 2012.

Mum-of-two Reema, who spent four years living in the caliphate, continues to profess her innocence and demands to be freed from a detention camp in Syria specifically for ISIS suspects.

Reema’s husband, Celso Da Costa, died while fighting with ISIS as did Zara’s husband Sadjo Ture.

Zara is being held in a separate camp with her three children.

Reema told The Sunday Times that she misses fish and chips and would be happy to face justice at home in the UK.

She asked: “What are you trying to torture us for? There’s nothing that we’ve done.”

She said: “Most of my life is destroyed. They [the British government] just think, ‘Yeah, everything we heard about you is true.’

“But they’re not doing their part to actually come and speak to me.”

It has now reportedly emerged that their brother-in-law through third sister Shamila Iqbal is Dr Shajul Islam.

During the early stages of his trial at the Old Bailey in 2013 he was described as a “committed jihadist”.

However Islam, 32, was cleared of wrongdoing when the prosecution offered no evidence as Cantlie, 48, was abducted again when he returned to Syria.

His fate remains unknown.

Islam subsequently headed to Syria and has been treating patients in an area partly controlled by Al-Qaeda linked rebels. He has since been struck off the medical register.

His younger brother Razul, 26, reportedly travelled to Syria to join jihadists in around 2013.

One source told the Sunday Times that Reema insisted it was every Muslims duty to carry out jihad abroad and had no qualms about her husband dying as a marytyr.

Ashan Iqbal, reportedly the brother of the three sisters, was arrested in Tanzania in 2013 amid terrorism claims and jailed over a stolen passport scam.

Although around 150 British women are thought to have travelled to Syria and Iraq to join the terror group, only a small number have ever returned.

Kurdish authorities are urging the British Government to take responsibility for its nationals and take them back.

Source: Mirror