LONDON: Three Bradford sisters and their nine children split in two groups to cross the border into Syria, a Daesh smuggler has told the BBC.

The smuggler in charge of some of Daesh border operations said the first group went early on Wednesday and the second on Thursday.

Sisters Khadija, Sugra and Zohra Dawood and their children went missing after traveling to Saudi Arabia.

On Tuesday, two of their husbands made an emotional appeal for them to return.

Akhtar Iqbal and Mohammed Shoaib said they "could not live" without their families and begged them to come home.

Their lawyer Balaal Khan said they were shocked to hear that the women had entered Syria and urged the police to corroborate the smuggler's information.

BBC Middle East correspondent Paul Wood, who is on the Turkish-Syrian border, said he had spoken to the smuggler who confirmed the crossing.

"If what he says is true, it clears up the main ambiguity of this story — whether the sisters were really heading for the so-called Islamic State, or some other part of Syria, controlled by some other armed group," said our correspondent.

The information also fits with the news that one of the sisters, Zohra, sent a message to her family that she was inside Syria — but she did not say exactly where.