A rescue mission to save 17-year-old Abdullah Elmir, dubbed the "Ginger Jihadi", from joining Islamic State fighters in Iraq was abandoned at the last minute because of fears those involved may end up being charged under the federal government's foreign incursion laws.

Abdullah ran away from his Bankstown home in June with his 16-year-old friend Feiz and became a poster boy for IS after appearing in a propaganda video that threatens Prime Minister Tony Abbott and was posted online last week.

The boys travelled from Sydney to Perth then Malaysia and Thailand and finally to Turkey from where they made contact with their worried families.

Relatives in Sydney and Abdullah's father in Lebanon instructed a lawyer to assemble a team including an interpreter and a man from south-west Sydney who believed he had the contacts to be able to find Abdullah. They were to travel with Channel Seven's Sunday Night program.