A civilian in a wheel chair is aided by an armed man ahead of being evacuated by United Nations staff, from the besieged district of the central Syrian city of Homs to a safer location, on Feb. 9, 2014. Credit: Getty Images
Twitter has shut down the account of a former Australian citizen apparently fighting for ISIS in Syria after he tweeted a photograph of his 7-year-old son holding a severed head.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry condemned the photograph as “one of the most disturbing, stomach-turning, grotesque photographs ever displayed.”
Khaled Sharrouf tweeted this picture of his 7-year-old son, who was born in Sydney, Australia, holding a severed head, on Aug. 8, with the caption, “That’s my boy!” Credit: Twitter
Sharrouf tweeted the picture Aug. 8 with the caption “That’s my boy!”
Sharrouf, who is Australia’s most wanted terrorist, fled to Syria last year and is now an Islamist State fighter, according to Reuters.
He was reportedly banned from leaving the country due to a history of terrorism but left the country using his brother’s passport.
Sharrouf was charged in 2007, along with eight other Muslim men, with stockpiling bomb-making materials and plotting attacks in Sydney and Melbourne. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four years in prison in 2009.
He will face arrest if he returns to Australia.
Sharrouf has in the past tweeted pictures of his son holding a gun and other graphic images of violence in Syria, including severed heads.
In a past Twitter photo, Sharrouf’s three sons are all dressed in military garb and armed.
Khaled Sharrouf with his three sons. Credit: Twitter
Sharrouf removed the children from Rissalah College in Australia to bring them with him to Syria.
The children’s grandfather, Peter Nettleton, has said he was “sickened” by the photographs and pleaded for Sharrouf to let the children return to their mother in Australia.
