The reach of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) now extends to Australia, as authorities in Sydney have issued arrest warrants for two men who were pictured online holding severed heads while fighting in Syria.
“Words don’t adequately describe how abhorrent those photographs are,” said Neil Gaughan, Australia’s deputy federal police commissioner, Voice of America reported Friday.
In a video, individuals who Australian authorities believe to be Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar brag about cutting the throats of infidels while handling the remains of Syrian government soldiers.
“In 30 years of policing, it is probably one of the worst things, if not the worst thing, I have seen. The Australian government, rightly so, came out very strongly on Friday criticizing in the very strongest possible terms the type of behavior that those two gentlemen are allegedly involved in,” the police commissioner said.
Mr. Gaughan added that the suspects would be arrested the moment that they “set foot on Australian soil,” VOA reported.
The Australian government believes that roughly 150 Australians are now fighting with the ISIL in the Middle East.
SEE ALSO: Minnesota’s Twin City jihadists: ISIL member wants to ‘bring back the caliphate’
“We’ve always been worried about the threat of homegrown terrorism. In the last 10 years we have actually stopped four mass casualty attacks occurring in Australia when we stopped them quite early in their planning stages,” said David Irvine, Director-General of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization, VOA reported.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.