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IN PHOTO: Shi'ite fighters launch a rocket during clashes with Islamic State militants on the outskirts of al-Alam March 8, 2015. Iraqi security forces and Shi?ite militia fighting the Islamic State took control of the center of a town on the southern outskirts of Saddam Hussein's home city Tikrit on Sunday, security officials said. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani

Karen Nettleton, the mother-in-law of Australia's infamous Islamic State militant Khaled Sharrouf, told the ABC she was not only disappointed and but also devastated when she saw the photograph of her grandson holding a severed head in State-controlled (IS) Syria.

Ms. Nettleton said, “It was a terrible picture". The 54-year-old, Sydney grandmother added, she is afraid the act is going to haunt him all his life, wherever he goes. The Twitter account of the boy’s father flaunted the image in October last year.

"For one picture to do that, you know, he's a sweet, sweet boy," she emphasised. Ms. Nettleton also informed the ABC's 7.30 program she has always avoided talking about it with her nine-year-old grandson, for she didn’t want to make him feel responsible for the act, because, as she claimed, he wasn’t responsible.

On Seeking Help

Ms. Nettleton said when she approached the Australian Federal Police (AFP) last year, to help getting her daughter and grandchildren out of Syria, they refused.

Reports suggested Sharrouf and his fellow Australian IS member Mohamed Elomar were believed to have been dead in an air strike in Mosul last week. Though Elomar has been confirmed dead, Sharrouf's whereabouts are still unclear.

Government’s Stand

Ms. Nettleton thinks her daughter, Tara and the grandchildren are at risk in Syria, so she requested the Government to help them get back to Australia. But Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said the Government could not do much to help those who left for Syria, being lured there by the extremist group. "The family should engage with the authorities, not conduct this discussion through the media," he added.

Ms. Nettleton also informed, though initially the AFP shown the willingness to help her, later they backtracked.

Meanwhile, Ms. Nettleton doesn’t want to believe that her 31-year-old daughter could face criminal charges upon return, "She hasn't done anything wrong," claimed the mother.

Contact the writer on barsha23@gmail.com

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