A British woman and her five children who had travelled to ISIS-controlled territory in Syria have reportedly been rescued by a rebel group.
Shukee Begum left her home in Manchester with her children at some point in the past 12 months. She maintains that she went to Syria only to persuade her husband, Muftah el-Deen, also from the UK, to leave ISIS.
Last month, in a video obtained by the Sunday Times, she said she "did not like Daesh [ISIS]" and that she did not consider them to be Islamic.
"I have come to Daesh to take my husband," she said in the video.
On Tuesday, the Levant Front, a rebel group operating around Syria's border with Turkey, released a letter in which it claimed to have freed the family from "unknown kidnappers".
The letter, a copy of which was passed to BuzzFeed News by a source in Turkey, does not name Begum directly but refers to a "British woman and her five children".
According to the group, the family had been smuggled out of ISIS territory by a "chain of people-smugglers" who had turned on Begum in an attempt to extort money from her. When she was unable to pay the smugglers a ransom, the family was held captive.
"They are now in safe hands and will be handed to their family soon," says the letter. It is marked with the official stamp of the Levant Front group and authoritative sources have told BuzzFeed News that it is authentic.
It is unclear whether Begum will be travelling back to the UK following her release and, if so, whether she will face prosecution on her return.
The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office declined to comment on the letter, but in a statement a spokesman said: "We continue to work closely with the Turkish authorities on the whereabouts of a British national and her children, originally reported missing in Turkey, and stand by to provide consular assistance."