Lidia Herrera left her son with former husband while she visited family abroad.But instead of babysitting Ismail, 3, father Ismar Mesinovic fled to Syria.He joined ISIL with the boy and is believed to have been killed in September.Now Miss Herrera has seen image of her son circulated on ISIL websites.

Lidia Herrera issued the tearful plea on an Italian talk show after images of her son Ismail, 3, wearing a black headband and carrying an AK-47 were posted online by accounts linked to ISIL.

The boy's father, Ismar Mesinovic, was killed fighting in Aleppo in September, but Miss Herrera had not heard from or seen her son for a year until the picture emerged.

Speaking to TV programme Ano Uno, she said: 'I never stop thinking about him; whether he is cold, whether he’s hungry, if he needs me. He is small. He needs his mother.

'I beg these people to let me speak to him, to see a photo. Without him I don’t know what I am going to do.’

In a separate interview with Il Giornale she added: 'I want him back in my arms. In the name of Allah give me back my son.