The parents of an Australian man killed in a US drone strike in Yemen are calling on the Federal Government to give them a full account of how their son died and what proof they have of his alleged links to Al Qaeda.

Christopher Havard was killed when a car he was travelling in was hit by a missile fired from a US drone last November.

Now documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws by 7.30 show Havard and the joint Australian-New Zealand national killed in the same strike had been on an Australian Federal Police (AFP) watch list because of their links to the banned Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) terror group.

The documents also reveal that the Muslim convert Havard was a suspect in the December 2012 Al Qaeda kidnapping of three Westerners in Yemen.

The three, including Austrian citizen Dominik Neubauer, were released in May last year, after a multi-million-dollar ransom was paid.

The documents reveal that the AFP began investigating Havard's possible involvement in the kidnapping before his death.

The documents also reveal what the Australian Government knew, and when, about Havard's life in Yemen.

When news of the drone strike broke in April, Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs said: "There was no Australian involvement in, or prior awareness of, the operation."

But the documents obtained by 7.30 show that DFAT sent Foreign Minister Julie Bishop a document about Havard four days before his death on November 19.

Referring to "Australians facing detention overseas on terrorism-related grounds", the Government has obscured much of the document on national security grounds.

However, it does reveal that Havard was assessed by the Government as being "involved" with AQAP.

Another document sent to the Attorney-General's office reveals the AFP had launched Operation Viljandi to investigate Havard's role in the kidnapping of the three Westerners.

The dual Australian-New Zealand national who died alongside Havard in the strike was Daryl Jones, aka Muslim bin John, another Muslim convert who Havard met in Christchurch.

The documents reveal some confusion within government about whether Havard and Jones were involved with AQAP.

In a submission sent to Ms Bishop's office before the drone strike, they say Jones was only "probably" associated with Al Qaeda, and Havard was only "involved" with the group.

But in another document sent to Ms Bishop a fortnight after their deaths, they refer to the pair simply as "AQAP members".

Mystery over death as Government 'changed stories every week'

On November 19, 2013, Havard and Jones were driving in Yemen's east with three AQAP members when their car was blasted apart by a drone-fired missile.

Havard's family say the government first told them he had been killed in a Yemeni government air strike on a mosque.

Later, they were told that he was killed in a car.

"It was at least a month after he was killed before we knew," said Neill Dowrick, who became a father figure to Havard during his troubled upbringing in Townsville.

"Chris was collateral damage, and from there the stories just got more and more, they changed the stories every week."

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"They said the coroner was going to ring us and tell us how he was killed. We haven't had that. No death certificate. Every time we ask questions they just won't answer. They won't give us any explanation whatsoever," Havard's mother, Bronwyn Dowrick said.

Just how Havard came to be in Yemen in the first place is a story in itself.

His father died when he was two and he grew up an only child in Townsville.

While in his teens, his mother Bronwyn began a relationship with Mr Dowrick.

Mr Dowrick admits Havard got into trouble in his youth, and says when he was 16 he spent time in prison for car theft.

"Because he'd done a small crime and he was in jail with really bad criminals, when he come out he said, 'nup', he never wanted to go back there for any reason," Mr Dowrick said.

From there Chris Havard travelled and worked odd jobs before enrolling to study at James Cook University, where he met some Muslim students.

One day he called his mother to ask if he could convert to Islam.

"He asked us if he could, if it was OK if he could join up, and be Muslim. And we said 'Yes, if that makes you happy, and that's what you really want, yes'," Bronwyn Dowrick said.

"And from that time he changed his whole life, his outlook on life," added Mr Dowrick.

Havard became a Muslim in a small ceremony in 2008 at Townsville's King Fahd mosque.

According to his parents, he became a new man.

"He give up the drinking, he give up the smoking, everything. Because he believed what was in the Koran," Mr Dowrick said.

"He wouldn't even let you touch it (the Koran) unless you went and washed your hands first. That's how much he believed in it."

Buoyed by his new faith, Havard moved to Christchurch in New Zealand, where he joined the local mosque.

Havard told his parents it was during his time at the Christchurch mosque that he first encountered radical Islam.

"When he moved into the mosque he realised what they were trying to convert people to. That's when he left and went to Dunedin. He didn't agree with what they were teaching," they said.

In 2010, his parents received some startling news.

"All of a sudden he rings up and says, 'Oh, I'm thinking about going to Yemen'," Mr Dowrick recalled.

"He was offered to go to Yemen to teach English."

Havard never told his family who paid for his trip.

"Because he'd picked up the Arabic so well, someone - of course he never mentioned names, that was one thing he never did - he said 'They've offered to pay for my trip to go over there and teach English'," Mr Dowrick said.

Caught in the middle of global war on terror

In 2011, Havard landed in the Yemeni capital, Sana'a, one of the centres of the US war against Al Qaeda.

Since the late 1990s the group now known as Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, (AQAP), has waged a war against the US.

In response, the US has launched a CIA-run campaign of targeted killings of AQAP members, relying in recent years in particular on unmanned drones armed with tank-busting Hellfire missiles.

In Townsville, the Dowricks never suspected that would have any bearing on their son.

But one day in 2012 Mr Dowrick took an unusual phone call.

"It was from ASIO, and they just told me that they cancelled his passport, and I just passed it on to Chris, that they had cancelled it," he said.

"[Havard had] actually gone to the airport to fly out, then he couldn't. So then he had to stay in Yemen."

Since Havard's death his parents have received death threats and have been harassed on the streets of Townsville.

Neill and Bronwyn Dowrick say they want the truth from the Australian Government. ( 7.30 )

"We feel we don't belong. Where do we belong? How do we move on? We’ve got no closure. We've got no proof of Chris's body or death certificate or how he was actually killed, so how can you move on?" Mr Dowrick said.

The Dowricks are clear on what they actually want from the Australian Government.

"The truth," Ms Dowricks said.

"The straight-out truth. No lies. The straight-out truth," Mr Dorwick adds.

The Dowricks could not raise the money needed to bring their son's body home, and, on a Friday in April, agreed to his burial in Yemen.

"That Friday night I was within this far of hanging myself," Mr Dowrick said.

"Because, you know, everyone rang, and I chucked the phone in the toilet, and it didn't die. But I felt like, because I felt like I'd let Chris down, I felt like hanging myself.

"I didn't because I knew it'd affect Bronwyn more. I had to make a decision, I made it. I don't feel good about making that decision, but I had to make it because the Government was pushing us that much, and I knew they'd win anyway.

"But I'd like one of them to go through the same as what we've been through."

"Every time we ask questions they just won't answer. They won't give us any explanation whatsoever," Ms Dowrick adds.

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