Aussie terror sheik celebrates city capture in Syria

AUSTRALIA’s most senior terrorist in Syria has been photographed celebrating with members of his Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist group.

Sydney sheik Abu Sulayman, far left, in Al-Sheikh Maskin.

AUSTRALIA’S most senior terrorist in Syria, former Sydney sheik Abu Sulayman, has been photographed celebrating with members of his Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist organisation within 30km of the Golan Heights border region with Israel.

Sulayman, born Mostafa Mahamed Farag and now a senior official in the al-Qa’ida-backed group, this week appeared in a photo released by Jabhat al-Nusra on Twitter from the city Al-Sheikh Maskin, where it claimed to have killed regime military officers by detonating an armoured vehicle reportedly seized from UN peacekeepers in the Israel-Syria demarcation zone in August.

The city — 80km south of the outskirts of the capital, Damascus — fell to Jabhat al-Nusra and a coalition of Western-backed rebel groups over the weekend. It has been claimed the victory is one of the biggest blows to the Syrian regime in the country’s south since the conflict began in 2012.

Authorities fear Sulayman’s group poses a greater risk to the West than Islamic State, as it can draw on al-Qa’ida’s experience in launching attacks on foreign soil, as well as having a division in Syria, known as Khorasan, that is focused solely on international plots while operating with relative freedom because of the complexity of the conflict. In the photo released on Monday, Sulayman is seen congratulating a fighter who purportedly parked an armoured vehicle laden with explosives next to the residences of Syrian army officers. “The return of Brother Abu Khattab after he parked the armoured vehicle in its designated location, thanks be to Allah, inside the Officers Housing in the city #Sheikh-Maskin,” the group said in a Twitter post with the photo.

Sulayman is identifiable due to a ring he is often filmed wearing on his right pinky-finger.

The truck used in the bombing was captured by the group when it kidnapped — and later released — 45 Fijian peacekeepers from the Golan Heights in August, London’s The Times reported on Monday.

The capture of Al-Sheikh Maskin was designed to be a “bargaining chip” in a bid to force Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to resign from office, Qatar-based security analyst Michael Stephens told The Times.

Sulayman has previously appeared in photos from the battlefields around Aleppo in August while firing a machinegun. It is not known how long he has been in Syria’s south. Authorities would not comment yesterday on any knowledge of his whereabouts or his activities, and the group has not revealed what role he is playing on the battleground.

A holder of a masters degree in education from Sydney University, 30-year-old Sulayman has previously been described as a top sharia official for the terrorist group.