British medical student becomes first female Isis recruit killed, reports claim

Rowan Kamal Zine El Abidine was one of a group of medical students who left university to join Isis in March last year

Rowan Kamal Zine El Abidine, 22, was one of nine medical students who left their university to join Isis in 2015 (Observer)

A medical student who joined Isis has become the first British female recruit to be killed after she was caught in an air strike in Iraq, reports claim.

Rowan Kamal Zine El Abidine, 22, died during the attack on Thursday, but her husband and baby daughter are thought to have survived.

News agencies in Sudan – where the student’s family are from - did not specify where in Iraq the strike took place, but it is believed Ms El Abidine was in Mosul, where foreign recruits often live in the terror group’s main base.

Before joining Isis, Ms El Abidine left the UK to attend the University of Medical Sciences and Technology in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum.

She made headlines last year when it was reported that she and eight other British students from her university had left to join Isis.

The students, who were born and raised in England, but had been studying medicine in Khartoum, flew to Turkey in March last year before crossing over the border into the Isis-controlled town of Tal Abyad, Syria.

One of the students reportedly told her parents via Whatsapp that they had gone to Syria to “help, not to fight” by treating victims of war.

The Foreign Office said it could not confirm Ms El Abidine's death.