Sydney (AFP) - US Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday
described the picture of an Australian boy holding a severed head in
Syria as "stomach-turning" and said concerns about foreign jihadist
fighters would be taken to the United Nations.
The image of the Sydney-raised boy posing with the
rotting head of a soldier, posted on the Twitter account of his father
Khaled Sharrouf -- an Australian who fled to Syria last year and is now
an Islamic State fighter -- has sparked outrage.
Kerry
said it underscored the brutality of the extremist militants who have
swept across Iraq and Syria, seizing swathes of territory.
"This
image -- perhaps even an iconic photograph -- is really one of the most
disturbing, stomach-turning, grotesque photographs ever displayed," he
said.
"A seven-year-old child holding a severed head, with pride
and with the support and encouragement of the parent, with brothers
there.
"This is utterly disgraceful and it underscores the degree
to which ISIL is so far beyond the pale with respect to any standard by
which we judge even terrorist groups that Al-Qaeda shunted them aside."
The Islamic State was previously known as ISIL.
View gallery
An image grab from an Islamic State propaganda video allegedly shows jihadist fighters driving on a …
Australia has an arrest warrant out for Sharrouf, who fled the
country last year using his brother's passport after serving almost four
years in prison. He had pleaded guilty over a 2005 conspiracy to attack
Sydney.
Officials have said up to 150 Australians are fighting alongside militants overseas, mostly in Iraq and Syria.
Many
other countries also have nationals in the war zones and there are
growing concerns about the threat which jihadist foreign fighters will
pose when they return home radicalised.
Kerry said the issue was
so significant that the United States and Australia had agreed to take
their concerns to the United Nations.
"We
intend to join together in order to bring this to the United Nations
meeting this month and put it on the agenda in a way that will elicit
support from the source countries as well as those countries of
concern."
He added that Australia and the US had agreed to "work
together to assemble a compendium of the best practices in the world
together regarding those foreign fighters".
View gallery
An image made available by Jihadist media outlet Welayat Raqa on June 30, 2014 allegedly shows a mem …
- Grandfather in tears -
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said the jihadists' "barbaric ideology" could not be ignored.
"It's
a shared issue across Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines,
Europe, in Pakistan, in Great Britain and Canada," she said.
"There
are a number of countries across the globe reporting incidents of
citizens becoming extremist fighters in the Middle East, and so this
idea of having a forum, a discussion ... is something that I believe
will be well-supported because so many countries are facing this
threat."
Peter Nettleton, the
grandfather of the seven-year-old boy holding the severed head, begged
the government to help bring the boy and his siblings home.
"I'm scared for the children. What life are they going to have now?" the Sydney truck driver told Sydney's The Daily Telegraph.
"That
(picture) brought me to tears because I don't know how to handle it,"
said Nettleton, who is estranged from his daughter Tara, Sharrouf's
wife.
Another photo published by newspapers in Australia showed
Sharrouf dressed in camouflage fatigues posing with three young boys
believed to be his sons.
All were holding guns in front of the flag of the Islamic State.
Nettleton,
whose daughter cut ties with him when she married and converted to
Islam, said he thought his five grandchildren -- three boys and two
girls -- were staying with Sharrouf's sister in Malaysia while he fought
in Syria.
A friend of
Sharrouf's, Mohamed Elomar, who is also a wanted man and is fighting in
Syria, reacted to the photo of the boy with a tweet to "keep them heads
rolling", the Telegraph reported.
"What a flaming ripper, ayyy beauty mate, love it, keep them heads rolling," it reportedly said.
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