How an awkward teenager was radicalised by ISIS in his bedroom after his mother died, sneaked into Iraq and blew himself up in a suicide bombing that shocked Australia – and his even more horrific ‘Plan B’
- Inside story revealed of how Melbourne teenager became radicalised by ISIS
- Jake Bilardi blew himself up in suicide bombing at central Iraq in March 2015
- Bilardi turned to Islam after mother died from cancer before he was radicalised
A Melbourne teenager turned to Islam to cope with the loss of his mother before he was radicalised online and sent overseas to blow himself up.
Jake Bilardi, 18, shocked Australia with a suicide bomb attack in Ramadi, in central Iraq, about 110km west of Baghdad, in March 2015.
How he went from a suburban Melbourne kid to a teenage terrorist blown to pieces 1,300km from home has only been revealed seven years later.
Bilardi turned to Islam after his mother died to cancer and became radicalised in his bedroom after meeting an ISIS mastermind online.
The inside story of how a Melbourne teenager was radicalised to join Islamic State before blowing himself up in a suicide bombing has been revealed
Jake Bilardi, 18, blew himself up in a suicide bomb attack in Ramadi, in central Iraq, about 110 kilometres west of Baghdad, in March 2015
Bilardi was a shy and awkward teenager who sought solace when his single mother died from cancer in 2012, The Daily Telegraph reported.
He was in Year 10 when he began to visit the Hume Islamic Youth Centre where he was introduced to the teachings of Islam and eventually converted.
Bilardi became radicalised online as he spent hours on the computer in his bedroom before he connected with ISIS mastermind Mirsad Kandic.
Kandic, 40, was a high-ranking member in the terrorist group who was responsible for recruiting overseas radicals and sending them to fight in Syria.
Bilardi was angry he had not found a way to leave Melbourne and fight overseas and noted down his frustration in his blog ‘From Melbourne to Ramadi: My Journey’.
‘How was I to get in? I had no contacts to assist me,’ he wrote. ‘After failed attempts at finding a contact I gave up all hope.’
Bilardi had given up all hope and began to work on his ‘Plan B’, which was a knife and bomb attack on Melbourne.
He bought six 500g containers of barium nitrate, an ingredient used to make a homemade explosive, but stopped building on his plan when he met Kandic.
Bilardi became radicalised online as he spent hours on the computer in his bedroom before he connected with ISIS mastermind Mirsad Kandic
Kandic, 40, was a high-ranking member in the terrorist group who was responsible for recruiting overseas fighters and sending them to fight in Syria
The ISIS recruiter said he would be able to help Bilardi get into Syria and gave him a checklist of things to do in preparation.
Bilardi was told to learn Arabic, do cardio exercises to train for battles on the front line, and fly to Istanbul pretending to be a tourist.
He paid extra for his passport to be expedited before booking a flight Istanbul for August 25, 2014.
CCTV footage showed Bilardi wearing a traditional Arabic scarf as he checked in for his flight at Melbourne Airport.
Bilardi called his brother Chris in October where he was pressured to return home.
‘I don’t know what it’s achieving,’ Chris said. ‘It’s achieving maybe something for you, because you think that it’s benefiting you, that you go to heaven or something.
Bilardi was told to learn Arabic, do cardio exercises to train for battles on the frontline and fly to Istanbul pretending to be a tourist
‘But it’s not benefiting anybody else. You’re going to be killing innocent people.’
Shortly afterwards Bilardi was given his orders to join seven other suicide bombers for a mission in the northern Iraq city Baiji.
It was called off just before Bilardi was set to detonate his bomb and it would not be until March 2015 when he was given his new orders.
Bilardi then blew himself up in a suicide mission targeting the Iraqi armed forces at Ramadi in central Iraq.
The attack was a failure: nobody was killed and just a few vehicles were damaged.
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk