Statement: Abu Abdel Malik's death was announced on social media by Algerian fighter Abu Musab (pictured left, alongside another ISIS militant)

A British jihadi who joined ISIS has been killed in Syria, his fellow militants have said - taking the total of number of Britons killed fighting for the terror group this year to at least 35.

The extremist calling himself Abu Abdel Malik al-Britani is understood to have been killed alongside two Canadian jihadis during fierce clashes in the Syrian desert town of Dabiq.

He is just the latest in a steady flow of British militants to be killed fighting for ISIS in the Middle East - a figure that has grown dramatically towards the end of the year as American-led airstrikes target the group's strongholds and Kurdish YPG and Peshmerga forces retake land from the terrorists.

Today it was revealed that US-led air strikes in Syria and Iraq have killed more than 1,000 jihadis in the past three months, nearly all of them from the Islamic State.

'At least 1,171 have been killed in the Arab and international air strikes [since September 23], including 1,119 jihadists of the Islamic State group and Al-Nusra Front,' said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of activists and medics across the war-ravaged country for its information.

Among the dead were 1,046 members of IS, which has seized large chunks of Iraq and Syria and is the main target of the air campaign.

Seventy-two of those killed were members of Al-Qaeda's branch in Syria, the Al-Nusra Front, while another was a jihadist prisoner whose affiliation was unknown, an Observatory statement said. The remaining 52 were civilians.

Abu Abdel Malik's death was announced on social media by a fighter of Algerian origin who goes by the nom de guerre Abu Musab and who claims to have trained alongside the militant in Syria.

He said the Briton was killed in Dabiq alongside two militants of Canadian origin named Abu Ibrahim Al-Canadi & Abu Abdullah Al-Canadi.

ISIS supporters on social media raised the possibility that the pair could be Calgary-raised brothers Collin and Greg Gordon, who joined ISIS in August having only recently converted to Islam.

Details of Abu Abdel Malik's true identity are not known and reports of his death could not be independently verified. The Foreign Office said it was aware of reports of the death of a British national, but could not confirm their legitimacy due to the lack of consular presence in Syria.

He is just the latest in a long line of British killed fighting for ISIS in Syria and Iraq in recent months - many of them having travelled to join the group after its declaration of a so-called caliphate in the vast swaths of territory it controls, and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's self-appointment as a caliph.

Claim: Abu Abdel Malik's death was announced on social media by Abu Musab, who said the Brit was killed alongside two Canadian jihadis during fierce clashes in the Syrian town of Dabiq

Reunion: Abu Musab claims to have trained alongside the dead British militant in Syria

Abdel Malik al-Britani was killed in Dabiq alongside two militants of Canadian origin named Abu Ibrahim Al-Canadi & Abu Abdullah Al-Canadi. ISIS supporters on social media raised the possibility that the pair could be Calgary-raised brothers Collin (left) and Greg (right) Gordon, who joined ISIS earlier this year

Canada's Gordon bothers (Collin pictured) joined ISIS in August having only recently converted to Islam

The number of British deaths has risen dramatically towards the end of the year, as the fighter's naive expectations of Call of Duty-style warfare are replaced by the brutal reality of fierce battles with the group's enemies: Al Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra, the Free Syrian Army, Syrian and Iraqi regime armies, Sunni tribes, Shia militias, and a number of other rebel groups in the area.

Their fight is made even harder by near constant airstrikes from warplanes sent by the U.S. and its Arab allies in Syria; and from America, Belgium, Canada, France, Netherlands, Australia and of course Britain itself in neighbouring Iraq.

The greatest number of Britons killed fighting for ISIS, however, have been killed in street battles with Kurdish YPG and Peshmerga troops, who have been making huge gains in northern Syria and western Iraq since September, having lost vast swaths of territory to ISIS earlier in the year.

In recent weeks there have been a number of reports of British militants expressing their desire to return to Britain having grown disillusioned with the reality of fighting for ISIS.

Professor Peter Neumann from King's College London's International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation says he was contacted by a man representing a group of up to 30 British militants, all of whom wanted to return to the UK but were worried about being arrested on their return.

He believes as many as a fifth of British fighters in the country could be trying to find a way out of their current situation and claimed less-hardened jihadists could be used to show would-be recruits that the reality of battle may not match the image presented by ISIS propaganda.

Militants: Coventry teenagers Ali Kalantar, 19, (left) known as Ali al-Farsi, and Rashid Amani (pictured right as a schoolboy) were killed in Iraq and Syria respectively while fighting for the Islamic State

Jihadi: Rashid Amani, 19, had been fighting for Islamic State in the besieged Syrian town of Kobane when he suffered serious wounds from a US air strike

Sick: Former supervisor at Primark, 25-year-old Muhammad Hamidur Rahman (left), was one of four Portsmouth jihadis killed fighting in Syria. In November Kabir Ahmed (right), a 30-year-old father of three from Derby, blew himself up in Iraq killing eight people and injuring 15 others

As many as 35 British nationals are believed to have died fighting for Islamist groups over the last 12 months - although the number is likely to be far higher as reports of deaths largely centre on those who maintain contact with the West through social media accounts on Facebook or Twitter.

The Home Office says over 550 individuals of interest to the security services have travelled to the region from the UK since the start of the conflict. It is estimated around half of these have returned.

The first known death came over a year ago when Ifthekar Jaman - a 23-year-old from Portsmouth who described his life in the Middle East as 'five star jihad' was killed fighting for Jabhat al-Nusra.

In September four British men were killed in a single U.S. airstrike in the Syrian city of Aleppo. Among then was 19-year-old Ibrahim Kamara who was born and raised in Brighton.

Other British fighters who have been killed in the fighting include teen-aged brothers Abdullah and Jaffar Deghayes from Brighton, East Sussex.

Jaffar, 17, is believed to have died in October trying to overthrow dictator Assad's government.

His brother, Abdullah, 18, died in Latakia province in April after leaving the UK in January to reportedly take up arms with al-Nusra.

Their older brother Amer Deghayes, 20, is believed to still be in Syria fighting for Jabhat al-Nusra.

Dead: Left is one of the last images of Ifthekar Jaman, a British national who died fighting in Syria last year

Relaxed: Briton Abdul Waheed Majeed (white shirt) was seen pointing up the sky while posing for photos moments before driving a truck full of explosives into a prison killing himself and many others in February

In October it emerged that a fourth man from Portsmouth, Hampshire - Muhammad Mehdi Hassan, 19 - had died fighting in Kobane, the scene of fierce fighting between Kurds and ISIS.

Three others from the same city - Iftekar Jaman, 23, Mamunur Roshid, 24, and Muhammad Hamidur Rahman, 25 - have also been killed after travelling there in October 2013.

Another city that has produced a number of jihadis is Coventry. So far two young Britons - Ali Kalantar, 18, and Rashid Amani, 19, have been killed in US airstrikes on Kobane.

Their 19-year-old friend Mohammed Hadi, also known as Abu Yahya al-Kurdi, is the only living member of the trio that travelled to Syria from the Midlands city in March of this year.

Anger: In recent weeks three British men of African descent are known to have died fighting for ISIS. They include Abu Abdullah al-Habashi (left) who previously featured in a chilling ISIS propaganda video filmed in Dabiq, and Abu Dharda as-Somali (right)

Names of other British nationals known to have died in Syria include Abdul Waheed Majeed - a 41-year-old suicide bomber from Crawley; Kabir Ahmed - a 30-year-old father of three from Derby who blew himself up in July; and Abu Abdullah al-Britani and Abu Abdullah al-Hajar, whose names are known but whose life and death details remain clouded in speculation.

In recent weeks three British men of African descent are known to have died fighting for ISIS - Abu Abdullah al-Habashi, Abu Dharda as-Somali, and Abu Musa as-Somali.

All three are understood to have been killed fighting in Syria, with Abu Abdullah al-Habashi having previously featured in a chilling ISIS propaganda video filmed in Dabiq.

While the escalation in deaths of British nationals fighting for ISIS may way put off some would-be jihadis joining the terror group, it may not have quite the impact many would expect.

Fingers raised: The third British man of African descent killed fighting for ISIS is Abu Musa as-Somali (pictured left alongside the aforementioned Abu Abdullah al-Habashi

The fear is that the deaths may actually attract more would-be jihadis to join ISIS, as young Westerners are sucked into the warped romance of martyrdom in the name of religion.

Those killed are referred to my their jihadist friends as 'green birds' in reference to passages in the Koran that talks about martyrs living in the hearts of green birds in paradise.

In fact references to green birds are so prevalent among Islamic extremists that the easily influenced claim to pray for death to come quickly to hasten their arrival in the afterlife.

A Home Office spokesperson said: 'The UK advises against all travel to Syria and parts of Iraq. Anyone who does travel to these areas, even for humanitarian reasons, is putting themselves in considerable danger of harm.'