British Isis toddler dubbed Jihadi Junior 'smuggled to Sweden' for urgent operation

A British child dubbed "Jihadi Junior" after appearing in two Islamic State (Isis) propaganda videos has reportedly been smuggled from the jihadists caliphate in Syria to Sweden for an emergency operation. The boy, named Isa Dare, is aged just four but that did not stop the extremists using the child for its propaganda campaign to attract foreign fighters.

The London-born child first appeared in a video in January 2016 wearing military gear and a Daesh (Isis) bandana before being featured blowing up a car with four "spies" inside, killing all of them.

In that video the boy then appears to press a button, detonating explosives which obliterate the car. He then stands beside the charred remains shouting "Allahu Akbar".

He has been identified as the son of London-born Muslim convert Khadija Dare. Dare took him to Syria and married Jihadi fighter Abu Bakr, real name Abdul Ghameed Abbas, who is Swedish-born, but of Iraqi descent.

Abbas is believed to have been killed fighting in the self-declared caliphate. Now it has emerged that the boy may have travelled 2,000-miles (3,200km) to a Swedish hospital for an emergency operation that could not be completed by IS doctors.

Anonymous sources told The Sun they believe he has been sick for months and had surgery weeks ago. "Isa had to have an operation weeks ago. He and his mother were in Sweden after she left Syria but no one knows how she managed to get out.

"She had a Swedish husband with Isis. He is the connection to the country. She may have used another identity to get there but Isa is very recognisable so it was quite a feat. She was not detained or stopped which is incredible given their notoriety," a source told the paper.

In July last year, his mother posted a picture of him clutching an AK-47 rifle. Dare had told Isa's father Deniz Yoncaci she was going to Egypt to study. But instead she had fled Lewisham, in South East London, taking the toddler to Syria in 2012.