Perth-born Islamic State fighter Tareq Kamleh, now in an Iraqi jail, married into one of the caliphate’s most dangerous female terror cells, headed by a fugitive sister-in-law wanted over a $US5m kidnapping plot.
Somali-Dutch militant Khadra Essa, the sister of Kamleh’s fourth wife Amina, remains on the run with a massive FBI bounty on her head after commanding a murderous sharia law battalion and vanishing with two abducted children.
Dubbed “Dr Jihad”, Kamleh is currently rotting in a Baghdad prison as he awaits his trial.
It can now be revealed that the former Adelaide playboy had close ties to Essa, who was also linked to Australia’s last remaining ISIS bride Hodan Abby.
According to a warrant of arrest issued by the FBI, Essa, also known as Umm Qaqa, led that “ISIS Nusaybah Katibah” group that violently enforced strict sharia law against women, conducted military training, and ordered assaults and murders across Syria and Iraq.
The revelation of these extraordinary terror ties comes after The Australian exclusively revealed Kamleh was alive, sitting in an Iraqi prison, and remained among 13 Australian ISIS fighters hoping to return home.
Despite being trained to use explosives, weapons, and conduct suicide bombing operations, it was Essa’s role in the 2019 disappearance of two young American siblings, Yusuf and Zahra Shikder, that has drawn the $US5m ($7.1m) reward from the US government.
She remains on the run following a brazen refugee camp jailbreak with the two kidnapped children. Details of the escape are unclear, but Essa was likely smuggled out of the al-Hawl refugee camp by bribing guards.
“She was formally trained by ISIS-NK (Nusaybah Katibah) in the use of weapons, explosives, and suicide operations. Essa has regularly advocated the use of violence and encouraged other ISIS members to conduct attacks in multiple countries,” the US Department of State’s warrant states.
“Additionally, she has taught ISIS extremist ideology that justified suicide operations and killing of civilians and has recruited new members for ISIS.
“In her ISIS-NK role, Essa led a group that violently enforced sharia law against women. Essa issued orders which resulted in physical punishments such as assaults and even murder.
“Essa is also known to have had in her custody several kidnapped or abducted children. In 2019, she held US siblings Yusuf and Zahra Shikder and took them to an undisclosed location in Syria after their mother died during a military strike against ISIS forces. The children’s mother had kidnapped and transported them to Syria in 2015 to join ISIS without their father’s consent.”
The American children were originally taken to Syria without the knowledge of their father, Bangladeshi-American Bashir Shikder, by their mother, Rashida. When Rashida was killed in a military strike in 2019, the orphaned siblings were seized by Essa.
Kamleh’s fourth wife, Amina, was also found with a missing American child before she was repatriated to The Netherlands to face trial on terrorism offences.
Former US diplomat Peter Galbraith, who spent nearly a decade extracting foreign children abandoned in Syrian camps following ISIS’s 2019 collapse, uncovered Kamleh’s web while hunting for the missing Shikder siblings.
In 2021, Mr Galbraith helped rescue Kamleh’s then eight-year-old American stepdaughter, who was being held by Amina in the Roj detention facility.
The girl was the daughter of Ariel Bradley, Kamleh’s second wife. Mr Galbraith told The Australian he was stunned to learn Kamleh had managed to evade detection for so long given his high-profile role in the caliphate.
“I was shocked to learn that he was still alive, and I would expect that he would be interrogated about the whereabouts of his sister-in-law,” Mr Galbraith said.
“Authorities believe that she was smuggled out of the al-Hawl camp with Yusuf and Zahra. Her sister, Umm Yakeen (Amina’s alias), was probably involved too.
“She (Amina) was repatriated to The Netherlands … I think she may be still in prison, I hope so,” Mr Galbraith said. “She was a radical Somali woman and her sister was involved in the disappearance of two children who I was looking for without success.”
The ABC reported that Australia’s last remaining ISIS bride, Somali woman Hodan Abby, was linked to the Essa family while she was detained in the Roj camp.
Anthony Albanese and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke have not commented on the situation, despite senior MPs saying the government has limited powers to prevent ISIS fighters from coming home if they are released.
Abby’s Temporary Exclusion Order was revoked by Mr Burke, meaning she could return to the country whenever she pleases. It is likely she would face terrorism-related charges on her arrival.
Mohammad AlfaresJournalist