An Adelaide-trained doctor who fled to Syria to become a prominent Islamic State member has been found alive nearly a decade after his reported death.

Tareq Kamleh, widely known as ‘Dr Jihad’, is imprisoned within a high-security jail in the Iraqi capital and wanted by the AFP, who have an active arrest warrant out for the 41-year-old on terrorism offences, including joining and recruiting for a banned terrorist organisation, according to a Mohammad Alfares exclusive in The Australian.

SEE THE FULL STORY BY THE AUSTRALIAN HERE.

Court documents seen by The Australian dispel reports of his death in the final battle of Raqqa in 2017, with the masthead reporting he is one of 13 ­Australian men linked to the terror group hoping to be released and returned home.

The Australian previously reported 13 Australians held in the Baghdad ­prison and suspected of being ISIS fighters could be freed from an Iraqi jail under renewed efforts to deport members deemed “non-combatants” of the terrorist group.

When the The Australian questioned the Iraqi government about the status of the group of Australians held in custody, they said the embassy in Baghdad followed “the procedures concerning its nationals held in detention facilities”.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke’s department declined to comment but the Iraqi ­Center for International Judicial Cooperation indicated that any potential repatriation remained an open, yet conditional, pathway.

“The repatriation or surrender of foreign nationals is to be considered on a case-by-case basis through the official channel … on the basis of mutual legal assistance requests, in co-ordination with the judicial authorities and diplomatic bodies of the countries concerned,” the spokesperson said.

The Perth born doctor studied at Adelaide University — where he earned himself a reputation for being a party boy — and worked at Adelaide’s Women’s and Children’s Hospital, before working in Queensland and Western Australia.

He had left Australia to work under the ISIS in 2015 and has released a couple of propaganda videos for the terrorist group.

In 2018, unverified reports alleged he had been killed the battle of Raqqa the previous year.

Now, the First Karkh Investigation Court in Baghdad, has dispelled those reports, stating Kamleh retreated with the hardcore remnants of the terror group, moving through various held territories as a mobile field doctor.

Kamleh then either surrendered to or was captured by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in 2019.

The court also said Kamleh, according to his statements during the investigation, did “not directly participate in combat operations” but “ worked within what was known as the ‘health department’ of ISIS, using his medical qualifications and experience in the health field”.

Digital evidence and technical analysis conducted by the ­National Centre for International Judicial Cooperation (NCIJC) also revealed that he worked in several medical facilities run by ISIS terrorist gangs, providing treatment to wounded ISIS members, the court said.

Judge Ali Hussein Jafat, head of the NCIJC, said the investigation into the Australian was ongoing.

In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Mail in 2015, Kamleh said “I made a very well educated and calculated decision to come here, it did not involve any brainwashing”.

Despite hundreds of online videos showing ISIS members beheading, stoning and burning people, Kamleh denied the organisation was a death cult, saying “the only death that I have had to deal with since being here has been from either pathology or Coalition drone strikes”.

“The two drone strikes that have occurred since I have been here have not claimed the life of a single male, let alone a soldier. Good work ‘Team Australia’. From what I’ve seen you have more blood on your hands than ISIS has on their knives.

“Is it not my humanitarian duty to help (Syrian) children also, or only kids with white skin and blue passports? I have no input or responsibility over the political or military actions of the state, if they are correct I wish them progression, if they are not, this is between them and God.”