Top Australia ISIS recruiter killed in Iraq
May 4, 2016Australia’s most wanted Islamic State (ISIS) terror suspect, who was linked to several attacks on home soil, has been killed in an American air strike in Iraq, Canberra said on Wednesday night.
The death of Neil Prakash is considered significant by Australian and American authorities because of his highly prominent and influential role as a senior recruiter for the jihadist group.
ISIS had announced back in January that Prakash was killed but Attorney General George Brandis said Washington had told Canberra that he had been killed in Mosul, Iraq, on April 29.
“Neil Prakash was a prominent ISIL member and a senior terrorist recruiter and attack facilitator,” he said in a joint statement with Defense Minister Marise Payne, using an alternative acronym for ISIS.
“Prakash has been linked to several Australia-based attack plans and calls for lone-wolf attacks against the United States. He is considered to be Australia’s most prominent ISIL recruiter,” the statement added.
American authorities also told the government that Australian woman Shadi Jabar Khalil Mohammad died in a similar air strike near the Syrian city of Al Bab on April 22, along with her Sudanese husband.
“Mohammad and her husband, Abu Sa’ad al-Sudani, were both active recruiters of foreign fighters on behalf of ISIL, and had been inspiring attacks against Western interests,” said Brandis.
She was the sister of Farhad Jabar, a 15-year-old who shot dead police employee Curtis Cheng in Sydney last October. The teenager was killed in gunfire shortly afterwards.
Prakash, who left Australia in 2013 and was known as Abu Khaled al-Cambodi, was linked to an alleged terror plot on Anzac Day last year, when Australia honors its war dead.
He has also appeared in ISIS propaganda videos, including one last year calling for attacks on Australia.
“His death disrupts and degrades ISIL’s ability to recruit vulnerable people in our community to conduct terrorist acts,” Brandis added.
Australia has long been concerned about home-grown extremism and raised the terror threat alert level to high in September 2014, the same month in which it arrested 15 terror suspects of an ISIS cell that was planning to behead a random member of the public in a campaign of terror.
At least six attacks have been foiled on Australian soil over the past 18 months, according to the government. But several have taken place, including the terror-linked murder of Cheng.
AFP contributed to this report.
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