Tareq Kamleh: Perth paediatrician turned ISIS poster boy reportedly alive in Iraq jail

A Perth-born paediatrician, known as “Dr Jihad,” who ditched Australia to join Islamic State and treated wounded terrorists is reportedly alive in an Iraqi jail almost a decade after he was declared dead.

Islamic State fighters in 2017 shared posts online stating that Tareq Kamleh, who took the name Abu Yousef al-Australie when he joined IS, had been killed in the final battle of Raqqa.

On Tuesday night, The Australian reported that Kamleh was alive in an Iraqi Jail being questioned by the Iraqi counter-terrorism judiciary.

He is reportedly one of 13 men linked to IS who are trying to be released from custody and returned to Australia.

The men are reportedly being investigated to determine whether they were “non-combatants.”

It comes weeks after a group of accused IS brides arrived back in Australia after some of the women allegedly entered a declared area and became members of a terrorist organisation.

The Australian claimed to have seen court documents showing that the 41-year-old Perth-born doctor survived the blood siege of Raqqa in 2017 — despite his family thinking he had died.

It is reported that the Australian Government is aware that Kamleh is being interrogated by the Iraqi counter-terrorism judiciary inside the prison.

Kamleh worked at Princess Margaret Hospital and the Mount Hospital in Perth before turning his back on WA in April 2015 and joining the brutal Islamic insurgency sweeping through the Middle East.

Members of his Thornlie mosque had seen him just weeks before his departure and claimed he told people he was going to work with Doctors Without Borders.

Nicknamed Dr Jihad, he came to the attention of authorities here when he appeared in an ISIS recruitment video encouraging other Western medical professionals to join him.

With Islamic State forces in retreat a couple of years later, he appeared in a second propaganda video, sitting in a tunnel or cave holding a rifle, complaining that the Muslim world had abandoned them.

“We are under continuous bombing here and we are fighting hard to hold the lands of Islam . . . what more will it take for it to be (a) justified cause for you to come here to fight for Allah’s sake?” he pleaded.

The Australian reported that the Supreme Judicial Council of Iraq published a media brief which said Kamleh was arrested in 2019 when he was “shifting through the frontlines of the Caliphate.”

The First Karkh Investigation Court in Baghdad reportedly confirmed that he moved through territories as a mobile field doctor after retreating with hardcore members of the terror group following the Raqqa siege.

It is reported that he survived coalition fighting for two more years until he was arrested or surrendered to US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in March 2019. He was reportedly then extradited as part of a group of foreign fighters to face Iraq’s justice system.

In a statement to The Australian, the National Centre for International Judicial Cooperation said investigators had found that Kamleh’s dealings with IS “extended beyond providing medical services.”

“He is alleged to have embraced the group’s propaganda, calling for terrorist activity not to be confined to conflict zones — a message reflecting the extremist ideology promoted by ISIS during that period,” it said.

They said the investigation remained ongoing.

Australian Federal Police have an arrest warrant for Kamleh over alleged terrorism offences.

The Iraqi Centre for International Judicial Cooperation said the repatriation of foreign official was dealt with through official channels.

“The repatriation or surrender of foreign nationals is to be considered on a case-by-case basis through the official channel . . . on the basis of mutual legal assistance requests, in coordination with the judicial authorities and diplomatic bodies of the countries concerned.”