Australian Isil terrorist and his children ‘killed in Syria’

AN AUSTRALIAN member of Isil and his two young sons have reportedly been killed in a coalition air strike in Syria.

Khaled Sharrouf, of Lebanese descent, was Australia’s most infamous jihadist and became known worldwide in 2014 after he made one of his sons pose with the severed head of a Syrian soldier. “That’s my boy,” he wrote on social media.

Australian officials believe Sharrouf died along with his sons Abdullah, 12 and Zarqawi, 11, according to ABC, Australia’s public broadcaster. The boys were both Australian citizens.

Sharrouf, 36, was raised in Sydney but was stripped of his Australian citizenship in February because of his support for terrorism.

Peter Dutton, the border protection minister, said he could not confirm that Sharrouf and his children were dead but said the jihadist was to blame if his sons had been killed.

“The point to make is that no Australian would mourn the loss of Khaled Sharrouf. He’s a terrorist, he sought to harm Australians and, if he returned to our country, he would be a significant threat to the Australian public,” he said.

“Nobody would want to see Australian children die. Nobody would want to see any children die. But the fact is that Sharrouf and his wife took their children into a war zone. If they have been killed, what other outcome would they expect?”

It is believed to be the first time that any Australian children have been killed in the war against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Sharrouf and his children are said to have died in a strike on Raqqa on Aug 11.