Australian government unable to confirm death of notorious IS militant

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – The Australian government on Tuesday said it was unable to confirm reports that one of the country’s most notorious Islamic State (IS) militants had been killed in Syria.

According to Australian media, so-called IS member Khaled Sharrouf, and two of his sons, died in recent days after an air strike targeted their location near Raqqa in Syria.

The Australian news agency said Sharrouf and his boys were in a vehicle struck by a US-led coalition air strike.

However, the Australian government said it was “extremely” difficult to confirm the reports from Syria.

“If the reports are true, Australia will not mourn Khaled Sharrouf,” Australian Attorney-General George Brandis said.

“He committed some of the most horrific crimes and waged war on Australians and our way of life,” Brandis continued.

In 2009, Sharrouf, 36, was imprisoned in Australia for his role in a failed terror attack involving targets in Sydney and Melbourne.

Sharrouf left Australia in 2013 when he traveled to Iraq and Syria before his wife and children joined him.

In 2014, the Australian’s barbarism was internationally recognized when he posted images of his young son holding the severed head of a man thought to be a Syrian soldier.

“This image is really one of the most disturbing, stomach-turning, grotesque photographs ever displayed,” then US Secretary of State Jon Kerry said at the time.

Unconfirmed rumors in 2015 claimed the 36-year-old had been killed in a drone attack in Iraq’s Mosul, but later reports dismissed those claims.

Sharrouf was the first Australian to be stripped of dual citizenship when his documents were revoked by the Australian government earlier this year.

Editing by Ava Homa