Khaled Sharrouf almost certainly is alive, new voicemail proves

AUSTRALIAN Islamic State terrorist Khaled Sharrouf is almost certainly still alive, ­according to law enforcement officials who have finished analysing a threatening voicemail message from Syria.

Australian fugitive terrorist Khaled Sharrouf is believed to have travelled from Syria to Iraq to take part in the ISIS uprising confronting the fragile nation.

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AUSTRALIAN Islamic State terrorist Khaled Sharrouf is almost certainly still alive, ­according to law enforcement officials who have finished analysing a threatening voicemail message from Syria.

The officials reached a consensus that the call, placed long after Sharrouf was thought to have been killed in a drone strike, was legitimate.

The development has led to a widely held view that he is probably still operating in the Syrian war zone.

Sunday Telegraph of February 14, 2016.

Sunday Telegraph of February 9, 2014

National manager of counter-terrorism for the Australian Federal Police, assistant commissioner Neil Gaughan, said: “The assessments of those who have heard the conversation is that they are fairly adamant it was his voice.

“The conversation was some months ago and at the time the assessment was that he was still alive. Whether that holds true is difficult for us to determine because of the fluid nature of operating environments in Iraq and Syria.”

In February, The Sunday Telegraph revealed that Sharrouf had called a man in Sydney sometime between Dec-ember and January.

The timing was significant, marking the first time Sharrouf had surfaced since a drone strike was thought to have struck a convoy he was travelling in around May last year. Officials had previously said they suspected he was ­deliberately laying low to give the impression he had been killed and had since then been avoiding social media to prevent further targets.

Another theory is that he is being punished in an IS prison for breaching the murder cult’s social media policy.

The tactic of circulating death rumours has increased in recent times. Last week, Australia’s most-wanted terrorist Neil Prakash was confirmed to have died during a US air strike on April 29, four months after rumours surfaced that he’d been killed in a separate attack.

Sharrouf apparently broke cover to make the call because of a property dispute and legal wrangling over a house in southwest Sydney. Since 2014, the NSW Crime Commission has been attempting to seize the  house  where he once lived using its powers of asset confiscation.

The paper-owner of the property is a relative of murdered standover man Joe ­Antoun, who allegedly helped buy the property, giving it to Sharrouf before he was executed in late 2013.

Legal proceedings to confiscate the house have been continuing ever since.

A police spokesman said he could not comment on ­whether the voicemail message had been intercepted by a domestic or foreign agency.

Sharrouf’s family has previously insisted he died during the May 2015 drone strike and said reports he was alive were a fabrication by the media.