"Allhamdulilah all we wish for is our husbands [sic] blood to be shed for the sake of Allah."
That was the reaction of Umm Abdullatif, an Australian woman who has joined the Islamic State (IS) group in Mosul, to reports of the death of a fellow Australian militant who was killed fighting alongside IS in Syria this week.
That Australian militant, known as Abu Jihad al-Australi, is thought to be 23-year-old Suhan Raham from the Melbourne suburb of Roxburgh Park, according to Australia's The Age. It has not been possible to independently verify the report.
As images of Abu Jihad's bloodied body were shared on social media on March 18, the women who knew him -- including Umm Jihad, a woman claiming to be his wife -- expressed not grief at his death, but contentment and even joy.
Umm Jihad, who tweeted an image apparently showing Abu Jihad's body, announced the death of her husband on Twitter. Abu Jihad had "fought in the front lines until he obtained shahadah [martyrdom]," she wrote.
Umm Jihad said she was "the most content I have ever been in my life."
Umm Jihad's nationality is unknown, but The Age reported that Raham is thought to have married a "jihadi bride" from the United States.
While Umm Jihad tweeted about her sense of contentment, Umm Abdullatif called on Western Muslims to carry out terror attacks in their home countries. "Kill Kuffar [infidels] in alleyways, stab them and poison them. Poison your teachers. Go to haram [forbidden] restaurants and poison the food in large quantities," Umm Abdullatif tweeted.
Muslim women in the West would not be deterred from sending their husbands to fight in the Middle East, Umm Abdullatif added. "Our husbands die in frontlines but that doesn't stop women in the west from sending their husbands to kill kuffar. Attack: UK AUS & US," she tweeted.
Second Australian Killed
Abu Jihad al-Australi is the second man from Melbourne who has reportedly died in battle fighting alongside the IS group this month.
Australian teenager Jake Bilardi, who ran away from home to join the IS group in Iraq, is thought to have been killed in a suicide car bombing in the Iraqi town of Ramadi. Photographs posted on Twitter on March 11 showed a white van with an inset image of the alleged driver, who looked like Bilardi.
Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs has said that it has been unable to verify the deaths.
The Australian Security Intelligence Organization (Asio) warned in December that Australia is a significant source country for foreign fighters. Asio has identified around 70 Australians fighting in Syria and Iraq, from a total of about 3,000 Western militants.
That a distinct group of Australian IS militants exists in Syria was noted by Umm Jihad, who tweeted earlier this year that "there are soooo many Aussies and Brits here but where are the Americans, wake up u cowards."
"Who knew my fate would be living amongst a bunch of Australians, full on m8 [mate]. Love my Aussie family xo," Umm Jihad wrote in another tweet in January.
Photographs posted to social media have shown a far grislier side of Australian militants in Syria and Iraq, however.
In August, an Australian man thought to be Sydney resident Mohamed Elomar was photographed holding aloft two severed heads. Another militant, named as Khaled Sharrouf from Sydney, posted an photograph of his 7-year-old son holding a man's severed head. The photograph was thought to have been taken in Raqqa in Syria.
-- Joanna Paraszczuk