Australia's most wanted IS jihadist arrested in Middle East

PanARMENIAN.Net - Australia's most notorious terrorist - who was believed to have been killed in a United States air strike in Iraq - has reportedly been arrested in the Middle East, The Telegraph said.

Melbourne-born Neil Prakash, who became Australia's main recruiter of Islamic State of the fighters, has been in custody in an unidentified country for several weeks, the New York Times reported on Thursday.

The 25-year-old, who has gone by the name Abu Khaled al-Cambodi since joining IS in 2013, was thought to have been killed in an American airstrike in Iraq in July. According to a senior American official, however, Prakash was wounded in the strike, but survived. Citing another senior American official, the Times reported that an unspecified Middle Eastern government has arrested him "in the last few weeks".

The Federal Government had announced in May that Prakash was killed in a US air strike in Mosul, describing it as a significant blow to the group's recruitment of Australians.

“We should be gladdened by this news because Prakash was the most dangerous Australian we knew of [fighting for IS],” George Brandis, Australia’s attorney-general, told Sky News at the time.

“He was the principal Australian reaching back from the Middle East ... in particular to the terrorist networks in both Melbourne and Sydney,” said Brandis.

In a statement, the minister assisting the prime minister for counter-terrorism, Michael Keenan, said the Government had reported Prakash's death "on the basis of advice from the US Government".

"The Government's capacity to confirm reports of deaths in either Syria or Iraq is limited," he said.

"These places are war zones, with many ungoverned spaces.

"And there are people who have been reported dead and are later found to be alive."

Prakash, who was of Fijian and Cambodian descent, was believed to have had links to numerous plots in Australia, including a knife attack by an 18-year-old against two policemen in Melbourne and foiled plans to attack police both last year and this year on Anzac Day, Australia’s memorial day for fallen soldiers.