Mother fears British Isis suspect Jack Letts has been left ‘to die’ in Syrian clashes

As many as 60 people, including 35 children, with connections to the UK are in Syrian prisons and camps now engulfed by fighting

The mother of a man stripped of his British citizenship and held in an Islamic State prison in Syria said he had been “left to die" by the UK after prisons in northeast Syria were caught up in violent clashes between government and Kurdish-led forces.

Sally Lane, 63, said her son Jack Letts, 30, and dozens of others with ties to Britain, are “sitting ducks” who have been “left to fend for themselves” as the detention centres for those accused of affiliations with Isis have become the frontline in ferocious fighting.

The Independent understands that as many as 60 people, including 35 children, with connections to the UK are currently being held in these camps and prisons, despite desperate calls over the years from their families to repatriate them.

The human rights organisation Reprieve warned that British children were now in “mortal danger” as a direct result of the UK government’s “negligent policy” to strip their parents of citizenship and to refuse to repatriate them.

Mr Letts, who has Canadian citizenship, has been held without formal charge or trial for a decade by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) as a suspected Isis militant.

Jack Letts had his UK citizenship stripped in 2019 (ITV News)

A convert to Islam, he had travelled to the Middle East in 2014, eventually ending up in Isis-controlled territory in Syria, where he was arrested by the SDF two years later when trying to flee. Nicknamed by parts of the media “jihadi Jack”, he has denied being an Isis fighter. In 2019 his UK citizenship was stripped.

He is currently believed to be in a prison in Raqqa, where Kurdish forces accused government forces of using suicide drones and heavy gunfire against the facility on Tuesday night.

“Keir Starmer has failed British citizens, former British citizens ... he's abandoned them to their deaths. We've been screaming about this for years,” Ms Lane said, accusing the UK and Canadian governments of “negligence and moral abdication”.

She has long campaigned to have her son repatriated, citing concerns about his welfare and believed torture in mention . In 2019 she and her former husband John Letts were handed a 15-month prison sentence, suspended for a year, for “funding terrorism” after they tried to send money to their son in Syria in 2015 via an intermediary. They vehemently denied the charges and told The Independent they had police permission to send money to their son, who never even received the £223.

John Letts and Sally Lane outside the Old Bailey in 2023 (PA)

“[The government has] blood on their hands, and now it's just a free-for-all. The detainees will just have to fend for themselves.

“It beggars belief that nothing has been done for 10 years, that it's just been allowed to happen.”

Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former Islamist rebel who led the uprising against Bashar al-Assad, has sought to bring the fractured country under centralised authority after over a decade of civil war and sectarian violence.

But talks with Kurdish-led authorities, who seek autonomy in the northeast, have failed. This week Damascus forces swept swathes of northern and eastern Syria long held by the SDF.

Amid the chaos, sides traded accusations about the escaped Isis suspects from different prisons – with reports that as many as 200 had initially escaped, although most have now been recaptured.

An official with the US military's Central Command, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: "We are aware of the reports and are closely monitoring the situation." Tom Barrack, the US special envoy to Syria, meanwhile urged the SDF to integrate with the government.

As the violence escalated on Tuesday, the office of Mr Al-Sharaa said it had renewed a truce with the SDF, which gave it four days to develop a detailed plan of how to integrate Kurdish areas and its forces into defence and interior ministries.

The SDF said they were “fully committed” to the ceasefire agreement and were open to “political tracks, negotiated solutions and dialogue”.

But Kurdish-led forces also reported that fighting was still raging around SDF-run prisons and camps holding tens of thousands of people either accused of being part of Isis or who lived under the caliphate.

The Syrian defence ministry has pledged to take over the camps and prisons, and accused the SDF of using them as "bargaining chips" to “sow chaos and destabilise the region”.

There are believed to be around 9,000 men accused of being Isis militants in the prisons, including 10 men like Letts linked to the UK.

Al Hol camp in northeastern Syria (AP)

Meanwhile 42,000 others, primarily women and children linked to male Isis suspects are being held in two camps al Hol and Roj. The most high-profile detainee is Shamima Begum.

In 2015, at just 15 years old, Begum was groomed and probably trafficked by Isis to the so-called caliphate in Syria. Her citizenship, like Letts, was stripped in 2019, leaving her stateless.

The Independent travelled to the camps this summer where former British citizens warned their lives were in danger amid concerns about the security breakdown in Syria.

On Tuesday, reports from within the camps that were shared with The Independent, said there was heavy gunfire heard, particularly around Roj, where most of the foreigners are being held.

Maya Foa, chief executive of Reprieve, called on the UK government to urgently intervene and repatriate all British nationals “at the earliest opportunity” warning British children were caught in the crossfire”.

“For family members back home in the UK, the fragments of information coming out of Camp Roj and al Hol are terrifying,” she said.

“The government should make urgent arrangements to repatriate all British nationals at the earliest opportunity, while emphasising to all diplomatic partners the need to respect and protect the rights of prisoners in these facilities.

“Security experts have been warning about the collapse of these detention facilities for years. The Kurdish authorities themselves described them as a ‘ticking time bomb’.

Shamima Begum has been stuck in a refugee camp in Syria for years (Getty)

Ms Lane, like several of the families, has spent years campaigning to have her son repatriated to the UK, even if he were to face investigation and trial, telling The Independent she fears he had been tortured by his guards in prison.

After his citizenship was stripped, and after Canada declined to intervene, in recent weeks Ms Lane has launched a campaign to have him repatriated by the UK, fearing the security situation in Syria was deteriorating and he could become trapped.

“The families [of those held in Syria] have agreed to everything in the past decade from the government including that their relatives can be put on trial.

“Even that wasn't good enough. They have still been abandoned.”

Middle East minister Hamish Falconer said: "The situation in north east Syria is deeply concerning, including reports of escaped Daesh fighters. We call for urgent de-escalation, the protection of civilians and a return to negotiations. The UK continues to provide humanitarian aid to those affected by the violence.”