Canberra was on Sunday attempting to verify whether an Australian Islamic State group fighter, notorious for being photographed with severed heads, had survived a drone attack after a report said he was still alive.
Australian media last week reported that two of the country’s most wanted IS jihadists, Khaled <g data-gr-id="26">Sharrouf</g> and Mohamed Elomar, were believed killed in a drone strike in Syria.
But highly classified photographs of the Predator strike have only confirmed the death of Elomar, with no indications that <g data-gr-id="25">Sharrouf</g> also perished, The Sunday Telegraph reported. “He’s got nine lives,” an unnamed source told the newspaper. “It was a split-second thing.”
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has previously said his government had a “high degree of confidence” that <g data-gr-id="20">Elomar</g> had been killed in a coalition <g data-gr-id="22">air strike</g> but could not say the same for <g data-gr-id="21">Sharrouf</g>.
The Telegraph said the classified photos showed Elomar standing next to a vehicle which was part of a convoy of IS fighters in Syria.
Another image taken moments later showed an explosion as the convoy was hit by a missile, with a third image showing the debris left by the strike.
“Our security and intelligence agencies are working to verify reports that Khaled <g data-gr-id="24">Sharrouf</g> survived a coalition air strike which is believed to have killed Mohamed Elomar,” Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop said Sunday.