So now the cleanup begins & there will be a few more. There's one Australian who wants to return, Scott Cotton, who has a child born in Syria and a Syrian wife. Below is a copy of an article from todays paper as it's behind a paywall.
"Somewhere deep in the frozen plains of northern Syria a young Queenslander shivers in the cold and dreams of home. Scott Cotton — or his newly adopted name Muhajid Muhajid — is one of a growing number of Australian jihadists eager to return now that the fight against Bashir al Assad is all but lost and oblivion on the Syrian battlefield looms.
In Cotton’s case, however, there is an obstacle — he is one of thousands of foreign fighters who have sired children to local women, in Cotton’s case a girl believed to be about two years old.
In November, Australia’s most notorious jihadist Neil Prakash stumbled across the Turkish border incognito and bearing false papers in what authorities believe was an attempt to flee the fight. It was a revealing moment. If true believers like Prakash were throwing in the towel what must morale be like among the lower ranks?
The looming exodus of Australian fighters has created a problem for Australian officials that goes well beyond the obvious security concerns their arrival home presents. In October ASIO revealed that up to 70 Australian children were thought to have been caught in the Syrian-Iraq conflict zone.
“(They) have either travelled to Syria or Iraq or a surrounding country with their Australian parents or have been born to Australian parents while in the conflict zone,” ASIO Director-General Duncan Lewis said.
These children are entitled to Australian citizenship as well as all the support and care the government can muster and which children exposed to the brutality of conflict might normally expect.
Like Prakash, Scott Cotton joined the Syrian jihad relatively early when enthusiasm for the cause was at its highest and the fight looked winnable. Like a lot of Queensland radicals Cotton threw his lot in with Jabhat al Nusra, al-Qa’ida’s official affiliate on the Syrian battlefield. Now it seems he’s had enough.
“He didn’t get what he signed up for,” his friend said. “(Jabhat al Nusra) want to kill him; petrol dealers want to kill him. He’s got no home, no allowance, no nothing.’’ "
It's occurring elsewhere as well.
Indonesian authorities detain 17 nationals returning from Syria
"Somewhere deep in the frozen plains of northern Syria a young Queenslander shivers in the cold and dreams of home. Scott Cotton — or his newly adopted name Muhajid Muhajid — is one of a growing number of Australian jihadists eager to return now that the fight against Bashir al Assad is all but lost and oblivion on the Syrian battlefield looms.
In Cotton’s case, however, there is an obstacle — he is one of thousands of foreign fighters who have sired children to local women, in Cotton’s case a girl believed to be about two years old.
In November, Australia’s most notorious jihadist Neil Prakash stumbled across the Turkish border incognito and bearing false papers in what authorities believe was an attempt to flee the fight. It was a revealing moment. If true believers like Prakash were throwing in the towel what must morale be like among the lower ranks?
The looming exodus of Australian fighters has created a problem for Australian officials that goes well beyond the obvious security concerns their arrival home presents. In October ASIO revealed that up to 70 Australian children were thought to have been caught in the Syrian-Iraq conflict zone.
“(They) have either travelled to Syria or Iraq or a surrounding country with their Australian parents or have been born to Australian parents while in the conflict zone,” ASIO Director-General Duncan Lewis said.
These children are entitled to Australian citizenship as well as all the support and care the government can muster and which children exposed to the brutality of conflict might normally expect.
Like Prakash, Scott Cotton joined the Syrian jihad relatively early when enthusiasm for the cause was at its highest and the fight looked winnable. Like a lot of Queensland radicals Cotton threw his lot in with Jabhat al Nusra, al-Qa’ida’s official affiliate on the Syrian battlefield. Now it seems he’s had enough.
“He didn’t get what he signed up for,” his friend said. “(Jabhat al Nusra) want to kill him; petrol dealers want to kill him. He’s got no home, no allowance, no nothing.’’ "
It's occurring elsewhere as well.
Indonesian authorities detain 17 nationals returning from Syria
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