(CNN) — A proud father's boast accompanies an image the U.S. secretary of state on Tuesday called "one of the most disturbing, stomach-turning, grotesque photographs ever."
"That's my boy," Khaled Sharrouf wrote on Twitter alongside a photo of his 7-year-old son using both hands to hold up a man's severed head.
The photo, since removed from Twitter, was reportedly taken in Raqqa, a Syrian city in the stranglehold of Islamic militants, where the Australian father has taken his young family to join the fight.
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Condemnation has been swift and on Tuesday included scathing criticism from Australia's most senior Islamic cleric, Grand Mufti Ibrahim Abu Mohamed.