The moment Aussie kids of IS terrorist are reunited with Sydney grandma
The moment the children of notorious Australian Islamic State terrorist Khaled Sharrouf were reunited with their grandmother has been captured on camera.
Sydney grandmother Karen Nettleton travelled to the al-Hawl camp in northern Syria where those fleeing Islamic State’s last enclave at Baghouz, mainly women and children, ended up.
Among them are a heavily pregnant Zaynab, 17, Hoda, 16, and Humzeh, 8, as well as Zaynab’s two toddler daughters.
Mrs Nettleton has not seen her grandchildren since 2014. She has made two previous trips to Iraq to find her grandchildren, to no avail.
ABC’s Four Corners captured the moment Mrs Nettleton was finally reunited with her grandchildren in the first time she’s seen them since their mother Tara Nettleton and Sharrouf left Australia to join Islamic State. Both have since died along with two of their sons Abdullah, 12, and Zarqawi, 11.
Mrs Nettleton is seen running to her grandson Humzeh which brings her to tears before he leads her to Hoda. He runs away to get Zaynab while Mrs Nettleton embraces her granddaughter.
“I can't believe this is happening. I can't believe I'm here with you, I'm pretty sure I'm dreaming,” Hoda says.
"You're not dreaming, you're not going to wake up," Mrs Nettleton tells her.
Grandmother’s fight
The grandmother has been pushing to get her grandchildren back to Australia.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said earlier this month he would not put lives at risk to extract them from the Syrian conflict zone.
But if Sharrouf’s family can get out of Syria and to an Australian embassy, they will likely be given passports to return.
“When they might be in a position to return to Australia, we will cooperate with that process,” he told reporters.
Mr Morrison said he was working with the Red Cross to get the children out of a Kurdish-controlled refugee camp, and security and identity checks would then be undertaken.
“We would follow the normal processes for issuing of travel documents after all those other matters have been addressed,” he said.
“Where there are Australians who are caught up in this situation – particularly as innocent children – we will do what I think Australians would expect us to do on their behalf.”
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