London, June 19 (IANS): Three sisters from Britain's Bradford city, who along with their nine minor children were reported missing after a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, have entered Syria, a media report said on Friday, citing an Islamic State (IS) smuggler.

Khadija, Sugra and Zohra Dawood -- all in their 30s -- and their nine children were split into two groups before they crossed into Syria on Wednesday and Thursday, BBC reported.

The sisters are believed to have travelled to the crisis-hit country to join their younger brother Ahmed, who left Britain in 2013 to join the radical group.

Their husbands on Tuesday made an emotional appeal for their return. Akhtar Iqbal and Mohammed Shoaib said they "could not live" without their families and begged them to return home, according to BBC.

The information on the whereabouts of the family came up during a casual conversation of BBC's Middle East correspondent Paul Wood with the smuggler on the Turkish-Syrian border.

Earlier this week, one of the sisters sent a message to her family that she was inside Syria.

Authorities have launched an investigation to ascertain whether the women made the journey to Syria after communicating with their brother over Skype.