A British family of 12 who made headlines around the world when they fled to Syria to fight for ISIS have all died, MailOnline can reveal.
Three of the grown-up sons from the Mannan family were killed fighting for Islamic State, while seven more relatives, including three children between the ages of one and 11, were all wiped out in an airstrike.
The elderly parents, Muhammed Mannan and his wife Minera, both died in the terror group’s former capital from natural causes.
Speaking from the family’s hometown in Luton, Mr Mannan’s son Shalim, from a previous marriage, told MailOnline: ‘They are all dead. It’s over, finished. We had been trying to find out for some time what had happened to them and it was only confirmed to us recently from Syria.
‘It’s a tragic end and we have drawn a line under it all and are now trying to get on with our lives,’ he added.
The Mannans are believed to have crossed into Syria soon after arriving in neighbouring Turkey in May 2015, where they stopped off following a family trip to Bangladesh. When they failed to return to Britain, they were reported missing by worried relatives.
Two months after arriving in Syria, the family released a statement declaring their support for Islamic State and their happiness at being in a land ‘that is free from the corruption and oppression of man made law and is governed by the shariah’.
It added: ‘Yes, all 12 of us and why should this number be shocking, when there are thousands and thousands of Muslims from all corners of the world that are crossing over land and sea everyday to come to the Islamic State?’
Mr Mannan, who is the oldest Briton ever to have gone to Syria, was also pictured holding up his finger in an apparent show of support for the group.
But his son revealed in an interview soon after that his father had been ‘tricked’ into going to Syria and urged him and the family to return.
‘My Dad is confused, sad, crying every day – [he’s] not in peace,’ he told ITV news at the time.
It later emerged that the family had been allowed to leave the UK despite being stopped at Heathrow and having their house raided by counter-terror officers.
The 75-year-old, who suffered from diabetes and other health problems, is known to have died in Raqqa a short time after the picture was taken. His wife, Minera, died from cancer in the city.
His two youngest sons, Mohammed Zayd Hussain, 25 and 19-year-old Mohammed Toufique Hussain both died in the battle for Raqqa against American-backed forces, who seized the city in October 2017.
The rest of the family then escaped with other jihadists across Syria and ended up around Baghouz last year.
During fighting for control of Islamic State’s final piece of territory, another son, Mohammed Abil Kashem Saker, 31, was shot and killed. The area fell earlier this year following a brutal battle, signalling defeat for the militant group.
The remaining members of the Mannan family perished in an airstrike while trying to flee Baghouz were their daughter, Rajia Khanom, 21, son Mohammed Saleh Hussain, 26, and his wife Roshanara Begum, 24, their three children and another daughter-in-law, Sheida Khanam, aged 27.
Mr Mannan’s cousin Abdul Khalid told MailOnline: ‘From what we’ve been told they were trying to get away from Baghouz and make their way to a camp, like so many other people were trying to do at the time but there was a lot of bombing going on and they got caught up in this.
‘They were all together, that’s all we know. We are not sure if they were in a house or out in the open but the fact is that they are all dead. The details of how they actually died don’t really matter to me.’
Mr Mannan was a regular worshipper at the Bury Park Mosque in Luton, where he was a popular figure and news of the family’s death is known to many members of the congregation.
Abul Hussain, chairman of the mosque said: ‘He was a lovely man who was really devoted to his family. When he went to Syria we were all shocked because we couldn’t believe that he was capable of something like this. It was not the Muhammed we knew.
‘We still can’t believe that the entire family has been wiped out, there were such young children involved and I can’t imagine what they all must have been going through, given the terrible things that were happening in Syria.’
The Mannan’s Luton home is currently being rented out and neighbours said that they too had been informed by relatives that the entire family is now dead.
One added: ‘Everybody around here knows about it. It’s really difficult to imagine somebody giving up the safety of England to go and live in Syria with their entire family, especially with such young kids.
‘To be honest, it was never going to end well. Our hearts go out to the Mannans and their family that are still here in Luton.’
