Australian teenage 'white jihadi' dies in Isil suicide attack in Ramadi
Australian teenager initially believed to be "Britain's white jihadi" reportedly died in a suicide attack on Wednesday
Australian teenager Jake Bilardi has blown himself up on a suicide mission for Islamic State
By Harriet Alexander, and Josie Ensor
8:05PM GMT 11 Mar 2015
An Australian teenager who ran away to fight for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) has reportedly died in a suicide attack in Iraq.
Jake Bilardi, 18, was a high-achieving schoolboy from Melbourne, who converted to Islam after the death of his mother in 2009, when he was 13. He dropped out of school in the middle of last year and bought a one-way ticket to Istanbul, en route to Iraq and Syria.
On Wednesday it was reported that Bilardi, who used the nom-de-guerre bu Abdullah Al Australia, had died in a suicide attack, driving a white van packed with explosives into a target in Ramadi, in Anbar province.
A picture of him sitting behind the wheel was posted on Twitter by Isil supporters, with the caption "may Allah accept him".
Local news reports said 10 people were killed and 30 wounded after Isil carried out 13 simultaneous suicide bombings against government-held districts in Ramadi in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
At the time of Bilardi's arrival in Isil territory, the militant group hailed his recruitment as "a major coup" - with the British media dubbing him "Britain's white jihadi". It later emerged that he was not British, and a blogger had fabricated his identity in an elaborate hoax.
On Sunday - just three days before his death - Australia's Fairfax Media said the photograph had now been positively identified by friends of the teenager and members of two mosques in Melbourne.
"He used to come here when we had a big lecture," said Abu Zaid, a committee member of the Hume Islamic Youth Centre in Coolaroo. "He was a very quiet guy, he stuck to himself. We weren't close to him. I didn't see any of the people [getting] close to him."
It said that two months after his disappearance, he contacted his family to tell them he was in Iraq training for a "martyrdom mission" with a suicide vest.
He later called his family again to say he was having second thoughts about a suicide mission, and was "too scared to do it and he prefers being a soldier" - and was planning to travel to Syria.
On Wednesday it appeared he had changed his mind - or had it changed for him.
Jake Bilardi told the BBC in December he wanted to die in a suicide attack.
"I've been waiting for almost one month now and I'm next to go so inshallah [God willing] it'll be soon," he said. "I came here chasing death, I might as well kill as many kuffar (infidels) as I can."
In the years before leaving to join Isil, the teenager posted messages on his online blog, and regularly commented on the wars in Afghanistan and iraq, saying American soldiers were "always killing innocent civilians", bombing and shooting them "just for fun".
In another comment on Islamophobia in the US made on in September 2011, Bilardi, who converted to Islam when he was 16, wrote that, "The CIA funded Al-Qaeda, the US government funded the Taliban. They brought this on themselves".
"Less than 1% of Muslims are terrorists and ... Islamic terrorism only makes up 6% of global terrorism," Bilardi wrote.
Around 140 Australians have travelled to fight with Isil and other terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq, with another 150 supporting them at home, the government has said.
Former immigration minister Scott Morrison said the case showed indoctrination was happening in unexpected places.
"It's very hard to make assumptions on who's going to fall prey to the death cult," he said of Isil, adding that the government needed "every available tool to stop people joining the fight overseas".
Tony Abbott, Australia's prime minister, described the unconfirmed reports of Bilardi's death as "an absolutely horrific situation".
"It's very, very important that we do everything we can to try to safeguard our young people against the lure of this shocking, alien and extreme ideology," he said.
Australian teenager initially believed to be "Britain's white jihadi" reportedly died in a suicide attack on Wednesday
Australian teenager Jake Bilardi has blown himself up on a suicide mission for Islamic State
By Harriet Alexander, and Josie Ensor
8:05PM GMT 11 Mar 2015
An Australian teenager who ran away to fight for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) has reportedly died in a suicide attack in Iraq.
Jake Bilardi, 18, was a high-achieving schoolboy from Melbourne, who converted to Islam after the death of his mother in 2009, when he was 13. He dropped out of school in the middle of last year and bought a one-way ticket to Istanbul, en route to Iraq and Syria.
On Wednesday it was reported that Bilardi, who used the nom-de-guerre bu Abdullah Al Australia, had died in a suicide attack, driving a white van packed with explosives into a target in Ramadi, in Anbar province.
A picture of him sitting behind the wheel was posted on Twitter by Isil supporters, with the caption "may Allah accept him".
Local news reports said 10 people were killed and 30 wounded after Isil carried out 13 simultaneous suicide bombings against government-held districts in Ramadi in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
At the time of Bilardi's arrival in Isil territory, the militant group hailed his recruitment as "a major coup" - with the British media dubbing him "Britain's white jihadi". It later emerged that he was not British, and a blogger had fabricated his identity in an elaborate hoax.
On Sunday - just three days before his death - Australia's Fairfax Media said the photograph had now been positively identified by friends of the teenager and members of two mosques in Melbourne.
"He used to come here when we had a big lecture," said Abu Zaid, a committee member of the Hume Islamic Youth Centre in Coolaroo. "He was a very quiet guy, he stuck to himself. We weren't close to him. I didn't see any of the people [getting] close to him."
It said that two months after his disappearance, he contacted his family to tell them he was in Iraq training for a "martyrdom mission" with a suicide vest.
He later called his family again to say he was having second thoughts about a suicide mission, and was "too scared to do it and he prefers being a soldier" - and was planning to travel to Syria.
On Wednesday it appeared he had changed his mind - or had it changed for him.
Jake Bilardi told the BBC in December he wanted to die in a suicide attack.
"I've been waiting for almost one month now and I'm next to go so inshallah [God willing] it'll be soon," he said. "I came here chasing death, I might as well kill as many kuffar (infidels) as I can."
In the years before leaving to join Isil, the teenager posted messages on his online blog, and regularly commented on the wars in Afghanistan and iraq, saying American soldiers were "always killing innocent civilians", bombing and shooting them "just for fun".
In another comment on Islamophobia in the US made on in September 2011, Bilardi, who converted to Islam when he was 16, wrote that, "The CIA funded Al-Qaeda, the US government funded the Taliban. They brought this on themselves".
"Less than 1% of Muslims are terrorists and ... Islamic terrorism only makes up 6% of global terrorism," Bilardi wrote.
Around 140 Australians have travelled to fight with Isil and other terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq, with another 150 supporting them at home, the government has said.
Former immigration minister Scott Morrison said the case showed indoctrination was happening in unexpected places.
"It's very hard to make assumptions on who's going to fall prey to the death cult," he said of Isil, adding that the government needed "every available tool to stop people joining the fight overseas".
Tony Abbott, Australia's prime minister, described the unconfirmed reports of Bilardi's death as "an absolutely horrific situation".
"It's very, very important that we do everything we can to try to safeguard our young people against the lure of this shocking, alien and extreme ideology," he said.
