Last week it Australian authorities said they had ‘reliable reports’ that notorious Islamic State terrorist Khaled Sharrouf and his two sons were killed in Syria in an air strike.
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Fairfax Media understands the federal government was briefed on Tuesday by intelligence agencies that there was a high level of confidence the jihadist and his sons, Abdullah and Zarqawi, were killed in an air strike in Syria.
It is understood the strike happened while Sharrouf was driving near the Islamic State defacto capital al-Raqqa on Friday, August 11.
The father of five from Sydney gained notoriety with his violent rampage across strife-torn Syria and Iraq, the macabre details of which have been splashed across social media.
Sharrouf made local headlines after two Portland police officers responded in November 2013 to what appeared to be a routine complaint of illegal shooters in the Capertee Valley.
The complaint related to gunfire that had been going on for quite some time on private property on Crown Station Road in the valley.
The men did not cause problems for the police and two were charged with firearms offences.
Sharouff’s friend and fellow ISIS combatant Mohamad Elomar, who was killed in an air strike in Syria in 2015, was also among the party in Capertee.
That year the pair travelled to Syria and then onto Iraq. Sharrouf, despite having served four years in jail on terrorism offences, slipped out of Australia on his brother's passport, a debacle which led to tighter airport security procedures.
Sharrouf later made international headlines after photos of his seven-year-old son, now believed to be deceased, Abdullah appeared holding the severed head of a Syrian soldier in the city of Raqqa.
Sharrouf's son was also present at the Capertee incident.
It is believed Sharrouf’s three remaining children Zaynab, 15, Hoda, 14, and Humzeh, 6 are stuck in Raqqa, Syria.
Their mother Tara Nettleton passed away in 2015 due to suspected appendicitis.
Zaynab has given birth to a daughter fathered by Elomar.