Aussie jihadist listed as Syria IS contact

Neil Prakash, believed to one of the most senior Australians fighting with Islamic State, has been listed as a contact for people wanting to join the group.

Australian IS recruiter Neil Prakash releases new video calling for attacks in Australia.

Australian IS recruiter Neil Prakash. Source: Al-Jazeera

An Australian fighting in Syria is listed in an Islamic State guidebook as a contact for people wanting to join the extremist group.

Neil Prakash, believed to the most senior Australian fighting with IS, has previously been identified as a top target of intelligence agencies and is accused of urging supporters to carry out attacks in Australia.

Prakash, known by the nom de guerre Abu Khalid al-Cambodi, is listed under the Twitter handle Abu Kambodee in the IS e-book posted on social media overnight on Wednesday.

The 100-page document, entitled "The Islamic State (2015)", offers detailed advice on how "members get into & out of Syria" and "useful Twitter contacts who are in IS to Private Direct Message (sic)".

"These people live in the Islamic State. They have [information withheld] and other private messaging apps. If their [information withheld] is banned, they will always make a new one," the e-book says of a list of almost 20 contacts.

Prakash is number four.

The 23-year-old, from Melbourne, was an associate of Australian Mohamed Ali Baryalei, the IS recruiter believed to have been killed in Syria last year.

Baryalei is allegedly responsible for facilitating the passage of dozens of Australians to the battlefields of Syria to join IS.

He was also allegedly involved in a plot to abduct and behead a member of the public in Sydney, which was foiled last September and triggered the largest counter-terrorism operation in Australian history.

In February, The Australian newspaper quoted an intelligence official as saying "Prakash has to some extent stepped into the void" left behind by Baryalei.

The e-book includes a diagram sourced from Western media describing Australia as being at "the front against Islamic State".

It includes an image of the earth depicting the origin of "muhajireen [emigrants]" to IS, claiming 250 are from Australia.

Other pages, also sourced from Western media, boast the area controlled by IS is now bigger than Great Britain and that people living in the "caliphate" receive better welfare benefits than in Finland.

The e-book includes a detailed breakdown of the IS leadership, excerpts from battlefield diaries and a timetable setting out the typical day of an IS recruit.

Recruits apparently rise at 4.45am for prayer and religious study, followed by "intense running/foot exercises", hours of weapons training, more prayers and evening classes. The day ends at 10pm.

Recruits are then "sent to battle to fight and gain experience, or gain martyrdom".

"Fighters will be given money, or may have brought some with themselves already. With this money they can buy more weapons, explosive-martyrdom belts, or even simply food like ice cream from the souks (shopping centres) when they are free from battle and back in the city," the document says.

Prakash, who is of Fijian and Cambodian descent, has also appeared in an IS propaganda film.

The Abu Kambodee Twitter account has now been suspended.

Prakash has moved to a fresh account.


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Source: AAP


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