Eight-year-old son of Australian ISIS terrorist wears suicide vest

The eight-year-old son of Australian Islamic State terrorist, Khaled Sharrouf, is shown wearing a suicide vest and threatening to murder Australians while brandishing a knife in a new video that has surfaced online.

According to The Daily Telegraph, the video, shot recently, shows the child being asked questions by his father off camera, including “How do you kill a non-Muslim?” and “How do you kill an Australian?”

Humzeh, the youngest of Sharrouf’s five children, then obliges his father by demonstrating how he would carry out each killing. He also makes a number of statements glorifying Islamic State (IS).

Cabinet minister Matt Canavan has described the video and treatment of the boy as a form of child abuse.

“It is reprehensible it, has to be condemned and I trust the proper authorities will look into this matter,” he told Sky News on Sunday.

A police spokesman confirmed that the New South Wales joint counter-terrorist team was investigating the video, but said “there is no specific threat” and Australia’s terrorism threat level remains at “probable”.

This is not the first time Sharrouf has used his children in this disturbing way. In 2014 he made headlines for posting an image of his seven-year-old son holding the severed head of a Syrian soldier accompanied by the caption, “That’s my boy!”

In February, Sharrouf became the first Australian to be stripped of his citizenship under recently introduced anti-terrorism laws that allow Australia to strip dual nationals of their citizenship if they are found to have carried out militant acts or been members of a banned organisation.

Sharrouf left Australia in 2013 to fight with IS in Syria, just a year after being released from prison for his role in a terrorism plot.

According to News.com.au, Sharrouf was caught during a major counter-terrorism investigation that broke up jihadist cells in Melbourne and Sydney. The cells had gathered guns, ammunition and bomb-making equipment for an attack on home soil, and Sharrouf was caught with six clocks and 140 batteries police said would have been turned into bombs.

In 2015, there were unconfirmed reports Sharrouf had died in a drone strike in Mosul, but this was soon debunked after he made contact with people in Sydney.

After Sharrouf’s wife Tara Nettleton reportedly died in 2015, her mother made several failed attempts to bring their five children back home, including travelling to the Turkey in 2016 in a bid to retrieve them.

Canberra lifted the terror threat alert level in September 2014 and introduced new national security laws amid concerns of attacks by individuals inspired by organisations such as IS.

It also cracked down on Australians attempting to travel to conflict zones including Syria and Iraq.

Authorities believe 110 Australians have travelled to Syria or Iraq to fight with terror groups, of which around 60 have been killed.

Source: Asian Correspondent