AMIRA Karroum, the “sweet and caring’’ Sydney jihadist was armed and fighting when she was shot and butchered in Syria and is not the only Australian-born female fighter in the region.

For the first time, law enforcement authorities have confirmed that a small number of Australian women have fought in Syria, not simply supported their husbands in the war zone.

Ms Karroum, a former Gold Coast private schoolgirl, who boasted on Facebook of being a “slave to Allah’’ was killed just days after arriving in Aleppo.

It is believed she was lined up against a wall and shot multiple times and then dismembered. Her husband Yusuf Ali, who was born in Adelaide under the name of Tyler Casey, was a dual American-Australian citizen who had undergone al-Qaeda training overseas.

AMRIA KARROUM ONE OF MANY AUSTRALIANS RECRUITED TO SYRIA

MEMORIAL FOR SYDNEY SYRIAN 'MARTYRS'

In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Australian Federal Police’s counter terrorism manager Neil Gaughan said Ms Karroum was involved in active conflict with her husband.

“That’s what we are alleging. That she was involved in the fighting with him,’’ he said.

“There’s a couple of women who have gone over as fighters — shooting guns — in Syria.

“They are young women. Under 21. One is dead. Amira Karroum.”

media_camera Amira Karroum.

Mr Gaughan said the brutal deaths of 15 Australians in the region, including Karroum and her husband, underscored that the reality of war zone was different to the romanticised images online.

“Once you go over there and you actually smell and taste it, it’s different,’’ he said.

“Facebook and social media romanticise things. It’s just a totally different environment.’’

Ms Karroum was found in a bullet-ridden house in Aleppo, Syria in January. She was involved in an al-Qaeda affiliated group known as Jabhat al-Nusra that was involved in a brutal turf war with Islamic State.

Her father, who suffered a mild heart attack when he learned of her death in January revealed this week that she was dismembered by her killers.

“She got shot and then they dismantle her body,’’ her father Mohammend Karroum told the 7:30 report.

“They cut her body. I don’t know why they are so cruel. Her and her husband. There was a lot of bullet in her body. And they dismantled.”

It is also believed that Ms Karroum was involved in running a matchmaking service for jihadists in Australia. Her husband’s mother is former Adelaide woman Kristine Hunt.

media_camera Iraqi women members of Iraq's Jaish al-Quds actively fight in the conflicts in the Middle East.

Ms Karroum is believed to have become radicalised when she moved to Sydney where her Fadl Sayadi, a convicted terrorist lived. Mr Sayadi was captured during Operation Pendennis on surveillance tapes praying for westerners to die.

“Shake the ground, you know, cause earthquakes, crack the floor beneath their feels. Allah, I ask you to swallow them in their own ground. Allah, I ask you to blow up their tanks. Allah, I ask you to drop their aircraft, to bring their planes, just drop their planes from the skies,’’ he said.

The greatest fear of law enforcement agencies today is a lone wolf attack.

“The reason why I am more concerned about a lone wolf or a small group involved in terrorism is that the intelligence, security and law enforcement agencies have a pretty good handle on large groups,’’ the AFP’s Neil Gaughan said.

“That’s because large groups make what I call “noise”. They talk to members of the community. Whereas people operating in small groups of two or three or less don’t make the same amount of noise. That makes it much more difficult to detect.’’