Khaled Sharrouf

Khaled Sharrouf (23 February 1981 – 11 August 2017) was an Australian jihadist who in 2013 travelled to Syrian territory to fight in the Syrian Civil War on the side of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as Islamic State). Born in Sydney, Australia to Lebanese parents, in 2017 he was the first Australian dual-national to have his Australian citizenship revoked under anti-terror legislation passed in 2015. In 2014, he posted an image to the Internet showing his son holding the severed head of a Syrian soldier, an act that was widely condemned.

Australian government officials confirmed he was killed in a coalition airstrike on 11 August 2017. During his teens he used LSD, ecstasy, and amphetamines for a sustained period of time. Sharrouf also became involved with petty crime, receiving minor convictions.

Growing up, Sharrouf used the given name "Carl". He did not begin calling himself by his birth name, Khaled, until he became a practicing Muslim.

Psychiatrists said Sharrouf suffered from mental illness, likely caused by his drug use, with severe symptoms including delusions and paranoia. One psychiatrist testified that he sought comfort in Islam to cope with his mental illness which had led to his radicalization. an illness his brother also suffers from. Sharrouf was initially judged unfit to plead due to his mental illness. He was ultimately sentenced to three years and eleven months in prison; the judge later described his crime as "pathetic" and called him a "very sad, pathetic figure." After his release from prison, Sharrouf was employed for some time by George Alex; Alex was later convicted of money laundering and tax evasion during this period. Sharrouf received disability payments for his mental illness following his release from prison, but subsequently fell back into radical Islam and into crime, reportedly carrying out violent exortions. The director of the Sydney prayer center Sharrouf attended in 2011 said Sharrouf was his close friend; he stated Sharrouf had always wanted to leave Australia and fight for Islam.

In Syria

Sharrouf travelled from Sydney Airport to Turkey on 6 December 2013 using his brother's passport, and then travelled to the Islamic State. His activities received wide coverage in Australia in August 2014 after he posted a photo on social media of his son holding a severed head. The incident was condemned by Australian leaders and by the public. The incident raised concerns about Australian Muslims being recruited for terrorist activity abroad, and the possibility that the recruits would return to Australia and conduct attacks.

Sharrouf's wife and children followed him to Syria. While in the caliphate, Sharrouf purchased a Yazidi woman as his sexual slave. She later said she was one of seven Yazidi women enslaved in the house, which was on the outskirts of Raqqa, ISIL's Syrian capital. She said Sharrouf's children called the Yazidi women "infidels" and threatened to kill them. The Yazidis later sought damages under New South Wales's victim compensation scheme for their enslavement by Sharrouf, seeking to be compensated out of his assets, which had been frozen by the Australian government in 2014. They lost the case in 2019, as the victims' compensation scheme was limited to offenses that occurred in Australia, and because their enslavement was not a criminal offense in ISIL-ruled Syria or northern Iraq at the time.

Sharrouf was reported to have been killed on 19 June 2015 by a drone strike. His death was not confirmed, and later reports indicated he was alive and making threatening phone calls to people in Sydney. With his Australian best friend and son-in-law

On 11 August 2017, he was killed by a coalition airstrike while driving near Raqqa, Syria, along with two of his sons. When questioned, Department of Immigration and Border Protection Minister Peter Dutton said that Sharrouf's death would be nothing to mourn. She took the Muslim name "Ayesha".

She and the children kept in touch with Karen in Australia over messaging apps. Hoda secretly communicated with Karen about the possibility of escaping.

Tara Nettleton died in 2015, which her mother learned about January 2016. She died in Syria or Iraq following complications from abdominal surgery, at age 31; she reportedly had appendicitis or a perforated intestine. Her children posted a memorial video tribute to their mother online, consisting of family photos. They posed for photos posted to their father's social media, sometimes with guns and ammunition. In one image, Abdullah, then age nine, held up the severed head of a Syrian government soldier. Sharrouf posted it with the comment, "That's my boy!" Several days later, Sharrouf made another post showing Humzeh standing in front of a man's dead body which had been cable-tied to a metal cross. The sign around the man's neck said, in Arabic, that he had been helping Christians. Humzeh was six years old at the time the video and photos were posted.

Abdullah and Zarqawi were killed alongside their father in the August 2017 Raqqa airstrike. Abdullah was 12 and Zarqawi was 11. She married another friend of her father, a Lesbanese-born man, after Elmoar's death, and had another child.

On 24 June 2019, it was reported that eight Australian children had been evacuated from a Syrian refugee camp, including the three surviving children and two grandchildren of Khaled Sharrouf. The Australian government evacuated the children secretly while working with aid groups. were evacuated with their mother and the rest of the family.

Also evacuated were the three orphaned children of Australian fighter Yasin Rizvic and his wife, Fauzia Bacha. Scott Morrison issued a statement about the evacuation, saying, "The fact that parents put their children into harm's way by taking them into a war zone was a despicable act. However, children should not be punished for the crimes of their parents." Around 50 were women and children, many "sick and injured." Officials said they would be psychologically analyzed before being brought to Australia and repatriated.