{"id":21616,"date":"2014-08-12T22:13:10","date_gmt":"2014-08-12T14:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=21616"},"modified":"2014-08-12T22:13:10","modified_gmt":"2014-08-12T14:13:10","slug":"us-secretary-of-state-kerry-says-image-of-7-year-old-boy-holding-severed-head-is-grotesque","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/08\/12\/us-secretary-of-state-kerry-says-image-of-7-year-old-boy-holding-severed-head-is-grotesque\/","title":{"rendered":"US Secretary of State Kerry says image of 7 year old boy holding severed head is \u2018grotesque\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
The seven-year-old son of Khaled Sharrouf holds the severed head of a soldier in the Syrian capital of Raqqa. Photo from Twitter.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CANBERRA, Australia\u2014U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday described a photograph of a Sydney-born 7-year-old boy clutching the severed head of a Syrian soldier as \u201cdisturbing\u201d and \u201cgrotesque,\u201d and called for international co-operation against the terrorist threat posed by foreign fighters returning home from Iraq and Syria.<\/p>\n

The Australian newspaper reported Monday that the image was taken in the northern Syrian city of Raqqa and posted on Twitter by the boy\u2019s convicted terrorist father, Khaled Sharrouf, an Islamic State fighter.<\/p>\n

Speaking after a U.S.-Australia bilateral security summit in Sydney, Kerry said the image showed why the Islamic State group posed such a threat to the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis image, perhaps even an iconic photograph … is really one of the most disturbing, stomach-turning, grotesque photographs ever displayed,\u201d Kerry told reporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf a 7-year-old child holding a severed head up with pride and with the support and encouragement of a parent, with brothers there,\u201d he said. \u201cThat child should be in school, that child should be out learning about a future, that child should be playing with other kids\u2014not holding a severed head and out in the field of combat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sharrouf, 33, also posted a photograph of his three sons posing with him in matching camouflage fatigues and armed with assault rifles and a pistol with an Islamic State flag as their backdrop.<\/p>\n

Kerry proposed that the United States and Australia take the issue of foreign fighters to the United Nations next month so that countries could agree on ways to protect themselves from the threat posed by terrorists returning from Syria and Iraq.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to work together to assemble a compendium of the best practices in the world today,\u201d said Kerry, calling for support from both the countries where terrorism occurs and those to where the terrorists travel.<\/p>\n

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop described the severed head photograph as \u201ctruly shocking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA 7-year-old child is involved in this barbarous display of ideology and they\u2019re Australian citizens,\u201d she said, referring to the family. \u201cOur fear is that they will return home to Australia as hardened, homegrown terrorists and seek to continue their work in Australia\u2014and it\u2019s not a concern just of this country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bishop noted that \u201ca significant number\u201d of convicted terrorists would soon be released from Indonesian prisons, raising fears in that country that they will remain radicals.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a shared issue across Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Europe, in Pakistan, in Great Britain, Canada\u2014there are a number of countries across the globe reporting instances of citizens becoming extremist fighters in the Middle East,\u201d Bishop said.<\/p>\n

Australia last week announced plans to regulate travel to terrorist hotbeds such as Iraq and Syria as part of a raft of counterterrorism measures aimed at addressing the domestic threat posed by Islamic extremists.<\/p>\n

Under legislation to be introduced to Parliament in the next few weeks, it would become a criminal offence to travel to designated countries \u201cwithout a valid reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Australian government estimated in June that 150 Australians have fought with radical militants in Syria and Iraq.<\/p>\n

The domestic terrorism threat posed by homegrown jihadists was a focus of annual bilateral talks on Tuesday between Bishop, Kerry, U.S. Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel and his Australian counterpart, David Johnston.<\/p>\n

Sharrouf used his brother\u2019s passport to leave Australia last year. The Australian government had banned him from leaving the country because of the terrorism threat he posed.<\/p>\n

He was among nine Muslim men accused in 2007 of stockpiling bomb-making materials and plotting terrorist attacks in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia\u2019s largest cities.<\/p>\n

He pleaded guilty to terrorism offences and was sentenced in 2009 to four years in prison.<\/p>\n

Australian police announced last month that they had arrest warrants for Sharrouf and his companion Mohamed Elomar, another former Sydney resident, for \u201cterrorism-related activity.\u201d<\/p>\n

They will be arrested if they return to Australia.<\/p>\n

The warrants followed photographs being posted on Sharrouf\u2019s Twitter account showing Elomar smiling and holding the severed heads of two Syrian soldiers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CANBERRA, Australia\u2014U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday described a photograph of a Sydney-born 7-year-old boy clutching the severed …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":21617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news-w","mauthors-rod-mcguirk","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}