A former Australian government minister was yesterday branded “stupid” by the prime minister for visiting the Iraqi front line in a battle between the Islamic State and Kurdish Peshmerga.
Wyatt Roy was voted into the Australian Parliament in 2010 at the age of 20. He was assistant minister for innovation when he lost his seat in elections in July.
Australia’s Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) on Thursday showed video provided by Roy from Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.
The video showed Roy crouching to avoid gunfire inside a Peshmerga position at Domez, near the town of Sinjar west of Mosul, a week ago as it was attacked by Islamic State fighters.
“Fifteen DAESH soldiers attacked the position that we were at for about half an hour,” Roy said from Erbil, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he would give Roy, a staunch political ally, “some very sage and stern advice” when they next met.
“It was very stupid and I’m disappointed in Wyatt,” Turnbull told Radio 3AW. “His actions were very foolish.”
Turnbull said he would not speculate on whether Roy had broken Australian law.
It is an offense to support terrorist groups, including the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which is active in northern Iraq, and to set foot in Mosul, which is held by Islamic State forces.
Roy said he and British political consultant Samuel Coates could not flee the Peshmerga outpost because of the danger of machine gun bullets, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars.
Five Islamic State fighters died.
“Once they [Peshmerga] had pushed them back, they were very adamant that we get in the car and drive as fast as we could in the other direction, so I drove us as fast as we could to the town of Sinjar,” Roy said.
Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop said Roy did not ask for Australian government help to travel to Iraq.
Roy wrote in the Australian newspaper yesterday that he had been at the Peshmerga outpost for no more than a minute when it came under attack.
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