Baby boy dies on board flight used to deport his French mother from southern Turkey over suspected Isis links

Five-month-old Muhammed al-Amin Mahiev was on an internal flight in Turkey when he died of heart failure

Muhammed al-Amin Mahiev was on board an internal Turkish Airlines flight from the southeastern city of Gaziantep to Istanbul (pictured) when he died of heart failure (Getty)

A five-month-old baby boy is believed to have died while travelling on board an aircraft being used to deport his French mother from Turkey over her suspected links to Isis.

Muhammed al-Amin Mahiev was on board an internal flight from the southeastern city of Gaziantep to Istanbul when he died of heart failure, a diplomatic source in Turkey told the AFP news agency.

The baby boy, who is understood to have been born prematurely last summer, was travelling alongside his mother Iman Mahiev when he died. Mahiev, a French national of Syrian origin, had been due to board an ongoing to France from Istanbul airport.

Turkish media said efforts were made to save the baby’s life on board the plane but he was declared dead shortly after landing their Turkish Airlines flight landed at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport.

Both Mahiev and her son were French nationals who are believed to have been staying in southeastern Turkey, close to the border with Syria.

Turkish authorities suspected her of having unspecified links to Isis terrorists and sent her and her son back to Paris under the guard of security officials, according to Paris Match. Turkey has a policy of regularly arresting foreigners close to the Syrian border and deporting them to their homeland.

Gaziantep, the Turkish border city where Mahiev is believed to have been detained, is one of the main routes used would-be jihadis trying to reach war-ravaged Syria.

It is also where a lot of Isis’ fixers are based, preparing would-be militants and jihadi brides for life under the so-called caliphate and introducing them to people smugglers who can transport them over the border to ISIS-held areas of Syria’s Aleppo province.