A 17-year old runaway from Bankstown in Sydney’s southwest has turned up as a spokesman for the Islamic State terrorist group somewhere in the Middle East, possibly Iraq.  Abdullah Elmir was last seen in June when he told his mum he was “going fishing”.

Elmir’s family at the time said that he was a normal teen who loved the xBox and playing with the family’s pet cat, but somehow became “brainwashed” by Islamic State.  It’s believed he flew from Sydney, to Perth, Malaysia, and beyond without ever being stopped or questioned.

Fast-forward to October, and the youngster’s ginger hair is wrapped up in a black and white checked cloth.  Abdullah Elmir is seen in Islamic State’s latest propaganda video all dressed up in terrorist drag, holding an assault weapon, and surrounded by older, much rougher-looking terrorists.

“To the leaders, to Obama, to Tony Abbott, I say this: These weapons that we have, these soldiers, we will not stop fighting,” he reads off of a script, “We will not put down our weapons until we reach your lands and until we take the head of every tyrant and until the black flag (of IS) is flying high in every single land, until we put the black flag on top of Buckingham Palace, until we put the black flag on top of the White House.”

Yeah right, kid.  Anyway, the family of the spokes-ginger is not impressed.  A relative of Elmir’s – who did not want to be named – described Elmir to The Daily Telegraph as “a stupid idiot”.  Others just want him back safely.

But it points out a problem, that IS has recruited from disaffected youth in Australia and other countries. 

The American FBI intercepted three girls from Denver – aged 15, 16, and 17 – in Germany, apparently on their way to join Islamic State.  They were sent back, and it’s unclear what charged they would face.

Earlier this month, two Austrian girls – aged 14 and 16 years old – managed to contact their families.  They had run off to join Islamic State, were promptly married off to extremists from Chechnya who had linked up with IS, and were really, really starting to regret it.  Pregnant and regretful, they said they wanted to go home.