From Sydney to al-Baghouz, Australian entrepreneur follows his jihadist sons via Antep

The Jihadi Hisham, who traveled for more than 10,000 km from his home in Australia to Syria to assume the responsibility of 21 of his daughters-in-law and grandchildren who are residing now in al-Hawl camp, east of Hasakah, where his jihadist sons and his son-in-law were killed during their presence under the Islamic State (ISIS) controlled territories, the matter he didn’t consider as a punishable crime.

The Jihadi Hisham Khedr al-Dhahabi, of Lebanese origins, had joined the Islamic State group in early 2015 in order to bring his sons back to Sydney, which had passed strict legal legislations against those who join terrorist organizations in the Middle East at the time.  

North-Press was able to meet five Australian jihadists in a detention center under the control of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in north and east of Syria, these interviews will be published in a series of reports. 

Among the Australian jihadists is Hisham, who is retained in a solitary cell in a high-security detention center.

The Australian jihadi explained the reason which made his senior sons to join the Islamic State, by saying that they were lured and brainwashed by the publications which were depicted in the Arab countries and the supporting countries of the terrorist group. 

Hisham’s eldest son, Khaled Abu Aysha was killed during the battles of Manbij in 2016 with his brother-in-law, while his son Muhammad Abu Shayba was killed in the battles of Hajin in the countryside of Deir ez-Zor in 2018, and he lost his little son in the battles of Baghouz, where Hisham with his wife and the wives of his sons and grandchildren finally gave up and surrendered to SDF.

Hisham said that his children had facilitated his entry with his wife to Syria, stressing that he had been communicating with his children since they came to Syria, and pointed out in the context of his speech that he traveled to the Turkish city of Gaziantep in order to cross the Syrian-Turkish borders there, and go to the city of Tabqa where the families of his sons used to live under ISIS reign.

His son, Abu Aysha had married five women of Australian, Lebanese and Moroccan nationalities and he had 13 children. While his other son, Abu Shayba, had three children from one of his wives, and all of them with his widow’s daughter are now living in al-Hawl camp following their surrendering last March to SDF.

Hisham didn’t have a permanent home, as a result of the battles which were targeting ISIS in Syria and Iraq. He moved among several Syrian cities, after he left Tabqa, he went to Raqqa, al-Mayadeen, then he landed in Baghouz, where he was shot by a shrapnel in his head, which it had affected his memory, as he claimed. 

The old jihadi argued that he stayed in ISIS controlled territories until its last stronghold in order to “protect his grandchildren”, claiming that he had tried to find a smuggler to get oyt out, but he failed. 

Hisham, who has traveled for thousands of kilometers and abandoned his profession as an entrepreneur, to work as a mechanic for ISIS, claimed that he was “chaotic and didn’t work most of the time”. 

In the context of his speech, he pointed out that he wasn’t in accordance with his children, where he came in order to bring them back to Australia, as he claimed at the beginning of his speech, especially regarding the issues of extremism, and contradicting his speech at the same time by saying that “ISIS was applying the law of God,” through slaughtering, cutting hands and beating in front of people in the public squares, noting at the same time that it was disgusting to see such bloody scenes.  

The jihadi, who described himself as a good Australian citizen, he never had issues with the Asus police because he was peaceful person, as he claimed. 

He demanded freedom and wanted the government of his country to “bring me back even if it will imprison me for 25 years”.  

In the context of his speech, he acknowledged that they, as ISIS had suppressed people and committed violations against them, citing one of the incidents that he had undergone, which was about the quarrels on the houses in ISIS territories.

 

The Australian government had already determined to fight ISIS, especially after the emergence of the jihadi Abdullah Mir and his threats to “raise the flag of the group on the Buckingham Palace and the White House” in 2014, in addition to a significant increase in the number of the Australian jihadists, where Australia was one of the countries which have taken part in the first air strikes of the Global Coalition against one of ISIS hideouts in eastern Syria on September 16, 2015. 

The threats of the Australian Abdullah Mir, who appeared in one of the terrorist group’s publications in front of a group of militants, and the emergence of the jihadi Khaled Sharouf who was carrying a Syrian soldier’s head, resulted in great public fears among the Australian community, prompting the government to tighten the security procedures.