An Australian ISIS fighter who wants to come home has claimed he didn't know he was joining a bloodthirsty terror group when he fled four years ago.

Mohammed Noor Masri, 26, fled Sydney for ISIS in 2015 and is now living in a refugee camp in Syria with his wife and three sons.

He claims he did not understand the group's brutality even though stories and images of its public executions and torture were broadcast around the world.

Mohammed Noor Masri, 26, (pictured) said he wants to get his Australian pregnant wife Shayma Assaad and their three boys one out of Syria

In a desperate bid to be allowed back into Australia, Masri told the Sydney Morning Herald he was misled into joining an organisation he now considers to be 'evil'.

Masri claimed he travelled to Syria not as a terrorist but as an inquisitive albeit misguided person seeking to learn more about Islam.

He claimed he didn't fight but rather worked as an air-conditioning service tradesman in a hospital.

Masri also told how he saw ISIS fighters starve children to death to save food for fighters.

'There was kids that were dying from malnourishment. I seen kids die actually, seen it with my eyes,' he said.



He said he made a mistake in joining ISIS and regrets it.

There are more than 2,500 displaced children from families with perceived or actual associations with ISIS living in camps (similar to al-Hol camp pictured) in North East Syria

The 26-year-old said he was prepared to face a lengthy jail term in Australia for his 'mistake' if allowed to return with his family.

He said he would prefer to be prosecuted in Australia or under international law, which recognises such things as 'human rights'.

According to Masri, he surrendered to Kurdish forces at Baghouz - a former IS stronghold in eastern Syria - about a month ago.

His situation highlights the challenge for the Morrison government faces after being pressured to repatriate Australian ISIS extremists for prosecution.

There are more than 2,500 displaced children from families with perceived or actual associations with ISIS living in camps in North East Syria, Save the Children states.

But the Australian government has repeatedly said it is not prepared to change its stance on dealing with such people as far from the country as possible.

In the interview, Masri claimed he stuck to his profession while living under the Islamic State and was never involved in killing, assaulting or enslaving anyone.

A German woman, living in al-Hol camp which houses relatives of Islamic State (IS) group members

Fighters from the al-Qaida linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), now called the Islamic State group, marching in Raqqa, Syria

Australians begging to come home after fighting with ISIS Oliver Bridgeman, 21 Olive Bridgeman, 21, (pictured) claims he went to Syria to be a humanitarian worker. The 21-year-old from Toowoomba in Queensland's Darling Downs claimed he travelled to Syria to be a humanitarian worker.

Queensland's Darling Downs claimed he travelled to Syria to be a humanitarian worker. He previously assured his mother and father he hadn't been fighting in the war-torn nation, where ISIS terrorists are battling for control.

His passport has been cancelled by the Australian government and he has been stuck in the war-torn area since 2016. Mahir Absar Alam, 26, Mahir Absar Alam, 26, (pictured), was caught just outside Baghouz. Alam joined Islamic State just four weeks after it declared its so-called caliphate in 2014.

He has allegedly expressed regret for joining.

The 26-year-old faces spending time in a prison camp in Syria, and could be taken to Iraq for trial or possibly be deported back to Australia, where he could be prosecuted. Ahmed Merhi, 27 Ahmed Merhi, 27, (pictured) has begged Australia to help him escape. Sydney terrorist Ahmed Merhi has begged Australia to help him after he was sentenced to death by hanging in Iraq.

The former Granville Boys High School student, from Sydney's west, travelled to Syria in 2014 or 2015.

At the time, he claimed he was travelling to the war-torn region to perform aid work. Janai Safar, 24 Janai Safar, 24, (pictured), previously vowed never to return to Australia. Safar is living in a refugee camp in northern Syria after its defeat.

She left Australia to allegedly join the jihadi terror group in 2015.

She previously vowed she'd never return to Australia.

'It was my decision to come here to go away from where women are naked on the street. I don't want my son to be raised around that,' she said. Zehra Duman, 24, Zehra Duman, 24, (pictured) hit headlines in Australia when she fled to Syria in 2014. Duman, from Melbourne, is believed to be held at the al-Hawl refugee camp in Syria with her two-year-old son and six-month-old daughter.

She claims she has been trying to leave ISIS for two years.

The 24-year-old said she knows Australians would be angry with her but insisted: 'My kids have a right to be treated like normal kids.' Khaled Sharrouf's children: Zaynab, 17, Hoda, 16, and Humzeh, eight Zaynab (top left), Hoda (top right), and Humzeh (bottom, middle) are in the al-Howl camp. The Australian terrorist's remaining three children have been held at the al-Hawl refugee camp in north-eastern Syria since mid-march.

Their Sydney-based mother, Tara Nettleton, smuggled the children out of Australia after her husband left to join the caliphate.

Nettleton is believed to have died in 2016, while Sharrouf and his two eldest sons were believed to have been killed in an airstrike in 2017. Advertisement

'I didn't see any heads or severed bodies and stuff like that. I wasn't the type of person to be running around the shops too much ... and I don't like to see beheadings. I don't like to see those sort of scenes. Nor do I agree with it,' he said.

The 26-year-old met and married Australian woman Shayma Assaad - the sister of one his friends who was killed - while living in Syria.

He told the publication he travelled to Syria to start a family based on the advice of a respected friend - but he now wants his three boys: Alae, 3, Dawood, 2 and Umayr, 1, to return to Australia.

If Masri was allowed to to return to Australia, he would face a minimum charge of entering a declared terrorism area - the IS' former capital of al-Raqqa in Syria.

The charge alone carries a maximum jail term of up to 10 years.

'I'm an Australian citizen and Australia's a pretty fair country … And they give people chances, especially if it's a first offence. I know it's a big offence, but I'm not someone who's known to have a criminal record,' he said.

Smoke rises after an air strike during fighting between members of the Syrian Democratic Forces and Islamic State militants in Raqqa, Syria in 2017