(CNN) Two terrorists who left Australia to fight for ISIS have been killed, a close relative said.
Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar died in a drone strike in ISIS-controlled territory, said Zaynab Sharrouf, 14, who is Khaled Sharrouf's daughter and Elomar's wife. The men were getting into a car when they were struck, she said.
Australian media reported that the men were in the ISIS stronghold of Mosul, Iraq.
Australian authorities are working to confirm their deaths independently, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said.
Khaled Sharrouf gained infamy last year when he tweeted a picture of his 7-year-old son holding a severed head captioned, "That's my boy."
At the time, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called the picture "one of the most disturbing, stomach-turning, grotesque photographs ever displayed."
Sharrouf and Elomar also tweeted pictures of themselves with the decapitated heads of Syrian government fighters, prompting Australian Federal Police to issue arrest warrants for the pair in July.
"It's very difficult to gain the information necessary given that it is a war zone," Bishop told reporters Monday.
"There is a conflict going on, and Australians should not be there."
Elomar married teen
Sharrouf, who in 2009 was jailed for his role in a planned terror attack in Australia, traveled to Syria with his wife, Tara Nettleton, and their family in 2013, using his brother's passport to avoid alerting authorities.
In March, Sharrouf's teen daughter reportedly married Elomar, her father's best friend, becoming the 31-year-old's second wife.
Khaled Sharrouf's daughter, 14, posted this photo of women in her family online, the Institute of Strategic Dialogue says.
Elomar claimed online to have sold captured girls as slaves for $2,500 each, and in August he triggered security concerns for an Australian Muslim leader after offering a $1,000 bounty for information on the man's whereabouts.
In May, Australian media reported that Nettleton was seeking to return home with the couple's children from Syria, where it was believed they had been living in the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa.
At the time, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Nettleton would face the "full severity" of the law if she dared to return home.
"I'm afraid you don't get off scot-free just because you say, 'I've seen the error of my ways,' " Abbott said. "If you commit serious crimes, you should face serious punishment, and as far as I'm concerned, that will always be the case."
Sharrouf's troubled teen years
Born in Australia in February 1981, Sharrouf was the son of Lebanese parents who had a violent relationship with his father and spent most of his youth in and out of local courts. Details of Sharrouf's troubled teenage years were revealed in court documents from his sentencing in the New South Wales Supreme Court in 2009 on terror-related charges.
According to the documents, Sharrouf was expelled from school for violent conduct and "was soon drawn into bad company."
He appeared before the courts on a number of minor charges between 1995 and 1998 when he was also regularly taking amphetamines, LSD and ecstasy. The drugs were likely to have been a "significant factor" in the emergence of schizophrenia, the documents said.
Role in attack plot
Sharrouf was a laborer in the building industry for a time but survived mostly on a disability support pension until his November 2005 arrest on terror-related charges.
He was one of nine detained after a series of raids on homes and businesses as part of an investigation into a plot for a terror attack in Australia by Islamic extremists. The plot was led by Elomar's uncle Mohamed Ali Elomar, currently serving a minimum 21-year sentence.
Sharrouf pleaded guilty to possessing batteries and clocks, knowing they were to be used to make explosives for a terrorist act. However, Sharrouf's hearing was delayed after he was found to be unfit to stand trial due to mental illness.
In November 2007, a court-appointed specialist said he was suffering an "acute exacerbation of the illness schizophrenia." He was put on medication, and in early 2009, it was deemed he had made a "remarkable recovery."
Sharrouf was sentenced to five years and three months in prison. He had already served most of that time while awaiting trial and was released from prison after three weeks.
No comments:
Post a Comment