Australian teenager Yusuf Zahab ‘alive’ in Syrian prison months after reports he was killed in IS strike

Yusuf Zahab, pictured in al-Sina’a prison during the Islamic State siege in January 2022. Zahab’s family said they ‘have received information from several sources that our beloved Yusuf is indeed alive’. Photograph: Human Rights Watch

An Australian teenager believed killed in an Islamic State airstrike in Syria more than a year ago is believed to have been found alive. His family say they are “overwhelmed with joy”.

Yusuf Zahab was just 11 when he was taken into Syria by his family nearly a decade ago: his older brothers were IS fighters and recruiters.