Grandmother's rescue mission to save her five grandchildren from Syria
An Australian grandmother and mother-in-law of Islamic State terrorist Khaled Sharrouf has flown to war-torn Syria on a rescue mission to save her stranded grandchildren.
Karen Nettleton, mother of Sharrouf’s deceased wife Tara Nettleton, left for Turkey on Thursday night accompanied by her solicitor Robert can Aalt.
The pair will try to reach Syria by land before attempting to locate the five children in the city of Raqqa, The Daily Telegraph reported.
Sharrouf was believed to have been killed in a drone strike in Syria last year but his death is unconfirmed.
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Reports last month suggested Sharrouf was still alive and making threatening phone calls to Sydney residents as the NSW Crime Commission attempted to seize his house.
Sharrouf married Ms Nettleton’s daughter Tara when she was 15 years old.
The pair, along with their five children, moved to the ISIS controlled Raqqa in 2014.
The ISIS bride died last September from complications stemming from an appendix operation, leaving the kids trapped.
The couple’s oldest daughter Zaynab married another Australian terrorist, Mohamed Elomar, and gave birth to a daughter.
Elomar was also killed in a drone strike last year.
Ms Nettleton has had little contact with her grandchildren and has been warned that the trip could be a ‘suicide mission’.
Experts have said that the children need to get themselves out of the war zone before they can be rescued from Syria.
Australian authorities believe the children could be assisted if they were able to reach the Turkish border.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop previously released a statement about the rescue of the children, saying the federal government was not in a position to get involved.
“This is a tragic circumstance for the children, who are in a war zone through no fault of their own,” she said.
“The children are the victims of their parents’ extremist ideology and reckless decision to travel to Syria.
“Due to the extremely dangerous security situation there, the government has no capacity to provide consular assistance.”
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said the government would have to consider what horrors the children may have been exposed to, or if they presented a threat.
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