Infamous Aussie IS fighter ‘likely dead’

Sydney: Canberra said there was a “high probability” a notorious Islamic State fighter from Australia and two of his children had been killed in a US airstrike in Syria.

Reports said Khaled Sharrouf and his sons Abdullah, 12, and Zarqawi, 11, were killed last Friday while driving near the IS bastion of Raqqa.

Sharrouf sparked international revulsion in 2014 when he posted pictures on social media of Abdullah holding the rotting severed head of a soldier.

The father of five had used his other children in propaganda videos, including one that surfaced this year in which he grilled his youngest son about killing non-Muslims as the six-year-old handled guns and knives.

“Nobody will mourn his passing ... I can assure you of that,” Australia’s Immigration Minister Peter Dutton told Channel Nine.

The Australian newspaper and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, both citing unnamed government sources, reported the death of Sharrouf and his sons.

But he was mistakenly reported killed in a drone strike in 2015 and Dutton said Canberra was still awaiting official confirmation that the latest accounts were accurate.

“There’s a high level of confidence, but this guy’s been like a cat with nine lives,” he said.

“There have been reports of his demise and his death before which have been proven, obviously, to be wrong.”

Sharrouf, believed to have been born in Australia to Lebanese migrant parents, left for Syria in 2013 with his wife Tara Nettleton and five children.

Earlier this year, he became the first Australian to be stripped of his citizenship under anti-terrorism laws.

Nettleton reportedly died last year after falling ill, while the fate of the other children is unknown.

Dutton said if the latest reports were correct, it was “regrettable” that two of Sharrouf’s children died alongside him. — AFP