Terrorists’ Aussie kids rescued from Syrian camp

Eight Aussie children, including the offspring of an Australian terrorist, are evacuated from Syria.

Eight Australian children, including the offspring of a notorious Australian terrorist, have been evacuated from a Syrian refugee camp in a highly secret ­operation to rescue the orphaned children of slain Australian Islamic State fighters from the remnants of the so-called caliphate.

Yesterday, about 4.30pm Australian time, a convoy of vehicles moved into a refugee camp in northern Syria and picked up eight children.

In what amounts to the first ­organised return of Australians from the conflict zone, the children were collected by staff from a local aid agency, and driven overland into a coalition-controlled area of Iraq.

The Australian has been asked to withhold the exact location of the children’s final destination for security reasons.

It was the first stage in a long journey that will involve them being flown through transit hubs in the Middle East and elsewhere, then home to Australia where state authorities — and the community — will begin the challenging task of reintegrating broken and traumatised children into the society their parents abandoned. Scott Morrison confirmed the ­operation, welcoming the fact that children had been freed from the “bleak and complicated’’ situation in Syria.

“Repatriating these children was not a decision the Australian government made lightly,’’ the Prime Minister said. “Australia’s national security and the safety of our people and personnel have ­always been our most important considerations in this matter.’’

The three orphaned children of slain Australian Islamic State fighter Yasin Rizvic and his wife, Fauzia Khamal Bacha, also dead, were among those evacuated.

Those children, two boys and a girl, are aged between six and 12.

They are expected to be resettled in Melbourne, where they lived with their family before decamping to the battlefields of Syria. A fourth child, the eldest, is believed to have been killed in Syria.

The operation was the culmination of weeks of careful planning by Australian government officials who have been working in secret with aid agencies and the Syrian government to evacuate Australian children stranded in the conflict zone.

The Morrison government has been adamant that no Australian official will be put in harm’s way to assist Australians who threw their lot in with Islamic State.

Privately, however, considerable efforts have been under way to repatriate unaccompanied Australian children, considered by the government to be the victims of their parents’ decisions. “The fact that parents put their children into harm’s way by taking them into a war zone was a despicable act,’’ Mr Morrison said. “However, children should not be punished for the crimes of their parents.”

There are thought to be about 70 Australians in limbo in northern Syria, the overwhelming ­majority women and children.

The Australian was asked to withhold details of the operation until the group was safely clear of the country, so grave was the risk.

The children had been living in the al-Hawl camp in northern Syria, although it is understood they had recently moved. They crossed the border about 5.30pm Australian time and were expected to arrive in the Coalition-controlled area by 10.30pm.

Originally, there had been talk of evacuating the children via Lebanon but in recent weeks the plan changed.

The Australian understands the evacuation of the children had originally been organised around one of the orphan's pregnancy.

The teenager was due to give birth the weekend just gone and authorities were reluctant to undertake what had the potential to be a hazardous journey when she could go into labour at any time.

However a second assessment is understood to have pushed her due date back a week and the decision was made to evacuate the cohort earlier than expected.

The children are expected to stay for a short time in a safe location in Iraq, where the teenager will give birth and officials will conduct a detailed medical and psychological review of the children. It will be the second such assessment performed on the group. The Australian has been told that a preliminary review was undertaken while the kids were in still the camp.

The children will undergo medical and psychological assessments as well as DNA testing to establish their parentage, and hence their claim to Australian citizenship.

However, the team’s foremost concern is likely to be assessing whether or not they have absorbed the radical views of their parents.

The operation to evacuate the children came a day after a senior Australian government official met with the Kurdish authorities running the camp to discuss the repatriation of foreign fighters and their families

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade official John Philp told local reporters in the war-torn territory that Australia was seeking an international response to resolve the cases of 8000 foreign women and children and 1000 alleged foreign fighters being held in the region in the aftermath of Islamic State’s collapse in Iraq and Syria.

Mr Philp, who was hosted by Kurdish authorities, said “every family” was important in the repatriation of women and children from the so-called caliphate but would not say whether he had discussed the Sharrouf children or any other Australians trapped in Syrian camps.

“There needs to be some solution for the whole of the self-administered region to ensure that the camps don’t stay here forever in this intractable and difficult way,” he said. “Every family is important.”

A DFAT spokesman said Mr Philip discussed “a range of issues” with Kurdish authorities.

About 70 Australians are inside refugee camps or in detention centres in northern Syria.

Additional reporting: Richard Ferguson