ASIO: Australians killed in fighting for extremists in Iraq, Syria.(60 Australians fighting with the ISIS)

Australian spy agency ASIO said Wednesday that 15 Australians have been killed fighting for Islamic extremists in the Iraq and Syrian conflicts.

ASIO Director General David Irvine told reporters that two of those killed were young suicide bombers.

Irvine said there was an estimated 60 Australians fighting with the Islamic State, and another 100 people supporting the two groups were from Australia.

"Not all of the Australians currently in Iraq and Syria will return but some tens of Australians have already returned and a good number of these remain of concern to the security authorities, " Irvine told the National Press Gallery.

He said of major concern was the small group who have returned to Australia having received"training in the use of weapons (and) bomb-making".

But he stressed that these extremists were only a small fraction of Muslim Australians and did not represent the Islamic communities of Australia.

"We're talking about a few hundred aberrant souls in the community of half a million Muslims and it is grossly unfair to blame Australian Muslims who see themselves as a committed component of Australia's multicultural society," he said.

"It's wrong to be blaming them for the sins of a tiny minority. "

"Recent uninformed criticism of the leadership of Australia's Muslim community ignores the fact that most Muslim leaders, both civilian and spiritual, have striven hard to address the problem of a few misguided people in their midst."

"I know from my own experience that the problem in Australia would be far greater without their efforts. So we should be thanking them and continuing to work with them."
 Sources:Xinhua - globaltimes.cn
27/8/14
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Related:

• Australia to support US in Iraq. (to send two Hercules transport planes to help US and British airlift supplies)

• More than 1,000 Turks fighting for the Islamic Caliphate.

• British security forces will find it impossible to monitor all the estimated 500 jihadists fighting in Syria and Iraq after they return home