But after Syrian authorities said they prevented the group from reaching the airport because of strong rhetoric from the Australian government<\/a>, it is unclear what their next moves will be.<\/p>\n The ABC can reveal the group includes three generations of the same family.<\/p>\n Here is what we know about them.<\/p>\n Kawsar Abbas<\/p>\n Kawsar Abbas, 54, is from Melbourne.<\/p>\n She is the wife of Mohammed Ahmad, who ran a charity to support the people of Syria.<\/p>\n Mohammed Ahmad spoke to the ABC from detention in Syria in 2019. (ABC News)<\/p>\n The Australian Federal Police suspected the charity of funnelling cash to Islamic State.<\/p>\n In 2019, Mohammed Ahmad told the ABC that he and his family got trapped in Syria<\/a> after travelling from the charity’s headquarters in Turkey to attend the wedding of his son, Omar, in 2014.<\/p>\n Mohammed said soon after arriving in Syria, he realised Omar had sworn allegiance to Islamic State. Omar also kept a Yazidi slave, who Ahmad said was treated well.<\/p>\n Mohammed insisted he was never an Islamic State supporter, but said he was imprisoned in north-east Syria when IS was defeated.<\/p>\n From 2019: How this Australian aid worker’s family were detained in Syria<\/a><\/p>\n An ABC investigation reveals how one Australian aid worker and 11 of his family members ended up dead or being detained in Syria. Mohammed Ahmad says he does not pose a threat but his chances of returning to his home country appear slim.<\/p>\n “The Australian government \u2026 have nothing to worry about from my side,” he told the ABC back in 2019.<\/p>\n “Australia is really my home country. I’ve been living there since I was a little kid.<\/p>\n “I would rather be judged in Australia than here.”<\/p>\n In 2019, ahead of the Syrian winter, Kawsar Abbas told the Sydney Morning Herald<\/a> she was worried about the health of the children in the camp.<\/p>\n “One of our tents flooded and then it dried up \u2026 but winter is not going to be like that. It’s not going to dry up,” she said.<\/p>\n Zahra Ahmed Zahra\u00a0married notorious Islamic State recruiter Muhammad Zahab, who died in an air strike. (Four Corners)<\/p>\n Zahra, 33, is the eldest daughter of Mohammed and Kawsar Abbas.<\/p>\n She is the widow of notorious Islamic State recruiter Muhammad Zahab, who died in an air strike in 2018.<\/p>\n In 2024 Zahra told an SBS documentary<\/a> that the women had no choice but to follow when some male members of her family joined ISIS.<\/p>\n “I didn’t make this bed,” she told SBS.<\/p>\n “We are now forced to suffer for the decisions that other people \u2014 other male influencers \u2014 made on our behalf, and now they are all gone and we are left to suffer with our kids.”<\/p>\n From 2019: Infiltrating Australia’s jihadi recruiting network<\/a><\/p>\n Tracing their journeys from quiet Australian suburbia to IS brides, Four Corners exposes the secret network that led many women to Islamic State.<\/p>\n In 2019 Zahra and her family told the Sydney Morning Herald they had been doing humanitarian work in Syria<\/a> when the Islamic State’s so-called caliphate closed its borders, preventing them from leaving.<\/p>\n “We’re willing to talk [to the Australian government], and we’re willing to \u2026 share our stories,” Zahra told the newspaper.<\/p>\n “But they haven’t even tried to come and reach out to us, and when we ask they don’t want to.”<\/p>\n In 2019, Four Corners reported that Muhammad Zahab, who was a maths teacher in Sydney, had recruited many of his friends and family<\/a> to join him in Islamic State-occupied Syria.<\/p>\n He married Zahra, his second wife, in Syria.<\/p>\n Zeinab Ahmed Zeinab Ahmed told the ABC the camps in Syria were not safe for children. (ABC News: Haybar Othman)<\/p>\n Zeinab, 31, is the second-eldest daughter of Mohammed and Kawsar Abbas.<\/p>\n She last spoke to the ABC from the Al Roj camp in 2025<\/a> and made an impassioned plea to the Australian government to help get the group home, saying she feared for her safety and the lives of her children.<\/p>\n “It’s not a place for a child to be, and every day, especially for the past two months \u2026 it’s just getting harder,” Zeinab told the ABC.<\/p>\n “There’s a street [in the camp] \u2014 it’s called Australia Street. We live closely, we have a strong connection because we all have the same motive. We all want to get home.”<\/p>\n From 2025: Australian women who lived under ISIS want to come home<\/a><\/p>\n Australian women who lived in the terror group’s so-called caliphate speak from detention camps in Syria, begging the federal government to bring them home.<\/p>\n At the time she revealed that Australian officials had travelled to the camp to meet with the women and children in 2022.<\/p>\n The officials interviewed families and carried out identity checks and DNA tests.<\/p>\n One of the architects of the operation to get the families out of Al Roj, Sydney GP Jamal Rifi, had paid for the passports and carried them to Syria.<\/p>\n Months later four families were repatriated to Australia.<\/p>\n “They took the first group and we were so happy that some of us were getting out, some of our kids will be saved,” Zeinab said at the time.<\/p>\n Janai Safar<\/p>\n Janai was studying health science in Australia before she left in 2015 to travel to Islamic State-occupied Syria.<\/p>\n The 32-year-old had a child in Syria in 2016.<\/p>\n She was married to an Islamic State fighter who died in 2017, the ABC has been told.<\/p>\n Janai was among the women whom Four Corners met in the Al-Hol camp in 2019.<\/p>\n Loading…<\/p>\n Back in 2019, Janai told the Australian newspaper<\/a> that she got married after arriving in Syria, then stayed at home and looked after her child.<\/p>\n She said while she did not regret travelling to Syria, she feared being treated like a criminal if she ever returned to Australia.<\/p>\n “I didn’t train or kill anyone,” the masthead quoted her as saying.<\/p>\n “I just sat at home, and they will put me in jail, they will take my child off me. Why? I’m a Muslim.”<\/p>\n Her father told the newspaper she was a “stubborn but kind-hearted” woman who posed no threat to Australia.<\/p>\n![\"Older](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/f447fe38ef3748540ccc8accacd369c2.jpeg\")
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