A YOUNG Australian doctor has appeared in an Islamic State video urging other medical professionals to travel to Syria to join the jihad against the west.
The man introduces himself in the stylised IS propaganda video as Abu Yusuf and says he is a doctor who travelled to the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa from Australia to offer his medical services as part of his “jihad for Islam”.
But the blue-eyed young doctor has been identified as former Adelaide University student Tareq Kamleh, believed to be in his late 20s, who completed his medical studies at Adelaide University and later moved to Perth.
At the time he was a clean-cut medical student who drank alcohol and “had lots of girlfriends”.
But he later settled down while dating a nurse from the Royal Adelaide Hospital.
The Australian doctor, who calls himself Abu Yusuf, says he travelled from his home country to join IS and is using his medical skills “as part of my jihad for Islam”. Picture: YouTube Source: YouTube
Four years later he is appearing in the IS video which introduces the “ISHS” — or IS Health Service — and appears to have been filmed in Raqqa in the Raqqa General Hospital. It features a number of doctors talking about medical facilities in the IS stronghold.
In the video, he introduces himself as Abu Yusuf and asks other doctors to join the terror group.
“My name is Abu Yusuf. I’m one of the medical team here. I came from Australia to the Islamic State to live under the khalifah.
Pictures from facebook of IS Doctor Tareq Kamleh. Picture: Facebook Source: Facebook
“I saw this as part of my Jihad for Islam to help the Muslims in the area that I could, which is the medical field and when I got here while I was very happy that I made the decision and I was a little bit saddened by how long I’d delayed it.
“I wish I’d come sooner.”
Facing the camera in a section of the video titled Pediatrics, he urges other doctors and medical professionals to join the medical team.
He is also shown treating babies in incubators. He says repeatedly that equipment is not the issue for the hospital but the availability of well-trained doctors
“We need the brothers and sisters to come and help us from all around the world. We just need the manpower … to help us grow this.
The Australian doctor Abu Yusuf or Tareq Kamleh is part of the slick video which cynically aims to appeal to “normal, rational” Australians, according to a terrorism expert. Picture: YouTube Source: YouTube
“After being here it’s disappointing to think how many fellow Muslim brothers and sisters who are in the medical field; doctors and nurses, physios and dentists are still living in the west and unfortunately here the Muslims are really suffering from not lack of equipment or medicine but lack of qualified medical care.
“So I suppose a message I would want to send out to any brothers and sister still living in the west who are considering coming … we really need your help. Any little thing gives the local people who are truly suffering a lot of benefit.
“Please consider coming, please don’t delay.
“I’ll see you soon”.
A former Adelaide University student who knew Kamleh but did not want to be named said today he had shown no signs of fundamentalism when she knew him at university.
“He was a pretty normal guy, he didn’t have any IS related interests.”
She described him as ‘clean cut’ but said he was well known among her group as a “womaniser” who also drank alcohol.
After completing his studies at Adelaide he moved to Queensland and then to Perth where he worked in pediatrics.
Photos on Kamleh’s sparse facebook account show him surfing, in a hospital and shooting a gun.
Australian National University terrorism expert Clarke Jones confirmed the video’s authenticity.
“This is certainly legit,” he said.
“It’s appealing with the use of the Australian to others, by showing them any ordinary Australian, in this case, can go across there and live a comfortable life beyond their expectations.
“It’s appealing to normal, rational people within the educated young crowd and it’s not just about fighting now, it’s about going over there and supporting brothers and sisters in the Islamic State.”
Dr Jones said the man broke the mould of those expected to flee Australia to fight.
“People want to say its either or (but) this guy does break the mould and that it appeals to a wide variety of people,” he said.
“If we don’t start to take a more understanding approach to this, which the Islamic State is beginning to have more appeal than Australia, we are going to continue to lose.”
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