Terror kingpin Mohammad Ali Baryalei among 10 Aussies killed: reports

UP to 10 Australian Islamic State ­jihadists are now believed to have been killed by air strikes in Iraq and Syria, according to unverified reports.

Mohammad Ali Baryalei

UP to 10 Australian Islamic State ­jihadists are now believed to have been killed by air strikes in Iraq and Syria with unverified reports that their chief recruiter Mohammad Ali Baryalei may be among them.

The Daily Telegraph has learned a classified list of foreign fighter casualties provided to Australian defence and intelligence officials suggested up to nine Australian foreign fighters had been killed since coalition forces, ­including the RAAF, began their campaign to wipe out the terrorist army.

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Last night, intelligence officials were seeking secondary confirmation that one of Australia’s most wanted men, and a senior Islamic State leader, could now be added to the list.

Counter-terrorism agencies, however, are concerned that confirmation of his death could prompt retaliatory attacks in Australia considering the mythical status that Baryalei enjoyed among extremists.

It is understood that intelligence officials had become aware earlier this week that the western Sydney convert to jihad may have been killed, before yesterday’s Facebook message from an associate, Abdul Salam Mahmoud, claiming he had been “martyred”.

Baryalei was named as the mastermind behind plans to kidnap and ­behead a random member of the public in Sydney, an atrocity thwarted by unprecedented counterterrorism raids across Sydney last month.

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Suggestions that the high profile target had been taken out came as the government introduced yet another set of anti-terrorism bills late yesterday — after Labor had forced their removal from the foreign fighter laws passed earlier in the day — which would allow the Australian Secret Intelligence Service to provide intelligence to defence forces operating in Iraq on the activities of Australian jihadists.

The Daily Telegraph has also confirmed the head of ASIS Nick Warner made a secret mission to Baghdad two weeks ago. Sources said part of the trip’s purpose was resolving intelligence sharing arrangements between Australian and US spies operating in the region.

A senior intelligence source said there had been concerns over sharing of intelligence for “strike targets”. Agency sources last night were “reasonably confident” Baryalei could be counted among the casualties but cautioned that news of his martyrdom could also have been deliberately fabricated for propaganda purposes by IS.

Mohammad Ali Baryalei / Picture: Corbis

While it was initially suggested he could have been killed in an air strike on the IS stronghold city of Raqqa in Syria, sources said he may have met his end after travelling to the nearby town of Kobane on the Turkish border, which has seen fierce fighting between Kurdish forces and IS.

One of Baryalei’s associates Abdul Salam Mahmoud, also know as Yassin Ali, posted on his Facebook page that his “beloved brother” had died at 1am on Wednesday. “I’ve just received the news that our beloved brother Mohamed Ali who was recently strongly attacked by Australian media has been martyred. He was a brother a friend and our leader in street dawah Sydney,” he wrote.

“Today we shall celebrate his martyrdom with tears of joy and sorrow. Oh Allah accept him as another green bird.”

Militant Islamist fighters wave flags as they take part in a military parade along the streets of Syria's northern Raqqa province / Picture: Reuters

A neighbour at Baryalei’s Quakers Hill family home said his mother Hom-ira “Mary” Baryalei told them she spoke to her son a month before the home was raided by police last December. She was apparently unaware that he had joined IS, thinking he had gone to Turkey to study religion, when the home was ­raided, the neighbour who didn’t want to be named said.

“Sorry for her but he wasn’t a very good son with what he is doing now. My view is they are all idiots. Mary was in denial. I suppose any mother would be,” the neighbour said.

“We said to her ‘we can’t sugar-coat this your son has done some really bad things and she said ‘I don’t understand’.”

Mrs Baryalei left the home with one of her daughter’s yesterday morning