MOSCOW, October 21 (RIA Novosti) – An Australian teenager who ran away from home to join the Islamic State has been featured in its new propaganda video.
Abdullah Elmir, 17, addresses the US and Australia, saying “To the leaders, to Obama, to Tony Abbott I say this: these weapons that we have, these soldiers, we will not stop fighting, we will not put down our weapons until we reach your lands, until we take the head of every tyrant and until the black flag is flying high in every single land.”
The teenager was reported missing in June from his Sydney home, along with another Australian boy, a 16 year old known as Feiz. The two boys travelled together to Turkey via Perth, stopping in Malaysia and Thailand. Feiz was since found and returned to Australia with his father.
In the video, entitled “Message of the Mujahid”, the red-headed teenager appears under the name “Abu Khaled Australia” and declares that IS will not stop until the black flag flies over the White House and Buckingham Palace, also warning, "Bring every nation that you want to come and fight us. It means nothing to us. Whether it's 50 nations or 50,000 nations, it means nothing to us."
At the time of his disappearance in June he was described by his family to the Sydney Morning Herald as a normal teenager who liked X-Box and playing with the family cat. They told the newspaper they were “devastated that we may never be able to see him again. We wish for his safety and we want the government to help bring him home.”
Elmir is not the first young Australian to go and fight for IS. In July an 18-year-old Australian named by IS as Abu Bakr Al Australi detonated a bomb near a Shiite Mosque in one of Baghdad’s largest markets, killing five people including himself and injuring 90. At the time Australian Attorney General George Brandis said in a press conference that according to their intelligence there were about 60 Australian nationals fighting in Syria and Iraq, and another 150 believed to have inclinations to joining extremist movements who are being monitored by intelligence services in Australia.
