Australia makes Daesh fighter first to be stripped of citizenship

Australian Daesh figher Khaled Sharrouf has become the country’ first dual nationality individual to be stripped of Australian citizenship under anti-terrorism laws, an Australian newspaper said on Saturday.

Australia, a staunch ally of the United States and its battle against Daesh militants in Iraq and Syria, is on alert for attacks by radicalised Muslims, including home-grown militants returning from fighting in the Middle East.

Under a 2015 law, Australia may strip dual nationals of their citizenship if they are found to have carried out militant acts or been members of a banned organisation.

Sharrouf, the son of Lebanese immigrants, shot to infamy in 2014 after photographs emerged of him and his 7-year-old son holding the severed heads of Syrian soldiers, causing a global outcry.

A spokesman for Australia’s Immigration Department told Reuters an individual had been stripped of citizenship, but declined to provide further details.

Though Australia has seen very few terrorist attacks in comparison to countries like the United States and European states such as France, it has still suffered tragedy. Since Daesh shot to international infamy in 2014, there have been a string of incidents associated with them.

In September 2014, an 18-year-old man, Numan Haider, was shot dead after he stabbed two police officers in Melbourne outside a police station, with police sources saying he was carrying a Daesh flag and two knives with him at the time he was killed.

Later that year in December, Sydney captured the world’s television screens as an Iranian-born extremist, Man Haron Monis, caused a hostage crisis at a café. When police finally stormed the building, two hostages were killed, one by a police bullet, and the hostage-taker himself was gunned down.

Since the dramatic events in Sydney, two smaller incidents have taken place, one in 2015 with another Iranian-born teenager and another in 2016, though it was not clear if these were inspired by Daesh or not.