Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says authorities are in the process of confirming reports that two of the country’s most wanted terrorists have been killed while fighting for ISIS in Iraq.
Australian media are reporting that Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar were both killed by a drone strike that took place in the Iraqi city of Mosul.
Sharrouf gained infamy last year when he tweeted a picture of his seven-year-old son holding a severed head, captioned “That’s my boy.”
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry referred to the picture as “one of the most disturbing, stomach-turning, grotesque photographs ever displayed.”
Sharrouf and Elomar are notorious ISIS murderers, frequently tweeting pictures of themselves with the decapitated heads of Syrian government fighters. After seeing the pictures, Australian Federal Police issued arrest warrants for the pair in late July.
Bishop told reporters late Monday that the government knew about the reports and was working to confirm them.
But the ISIS-controlled areas of Mosul, Iraq and Raqqa, Syria are not accessible to Australian forces, making the reports difficult to confirm.
“It’s very difficult to gain the information necessary given that it is a war zone,” she said. “There is a conflict going on, and Australians should not be there.”
There was no official confirmation of who carried out the attack but it is believed that the drone was operated by the U.S. Air Force.
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