Kerry: Image of 7-year-old boy holding severed head is grotesque

 U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday described a photograph of a Sydney-born 7-year-old boy clutching the severed head of a Syrian soldier as "disturbing" and "grotesque," and called for international cooperation against the terrorist threat posed by foreign fighters returning home from Iraq and Syria, The Republic newspaper reported.
The Australian newspaper reported Monday that the image was taken in the northern Syrian city of Raqqa and posted on Twitter by the boy's convicted terrorist father, Khaled Sharrouf, an Islamic State fighter.
Speaking after a U.S.-Australia bilateral security summit in Sydney, Kerry said the image showed why the Islamic State group posed such a threat to the world.
"This image, perhaps even an iconic photograph ... is really one of the most disturbing, stomach-turning, grotesque photographs ever displayed," Kerry told reporters.
"Of a 7-year-old child holding a severed head up with pride and with the support and encouragement of a parent, with brothers there," he said. "That child should be in school, that child should be out learning about a future, that child should be playing with other kids — not holding a severed head and out in the field of combat."
Sharrouf, 33, also posted a photograph of his three sons posing with him in matching camouflage fatigues and armed with assault rifles and a pistol with an Islamic State flag as their backdrop.
Kerry proposed that the United States and Australia take the issue of foreign fighters to the United Nations next month so that countries could agree on ways to protect themselves from the threat posed by terrorists returning from Syria and Iraq.
"We are going to work together to assemble a compendium of the best practices in the world today," said Kerry, calling for support from both the countries where terrorism occurs and those to where the terrorists travel.
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop described the severed head photograph as "truly shocking."
"A 7-year-old child is involved in this barbarous display of ideology and they're Australian citizens," she said, referring to the family. "Our fear is that they will return home to Australia as hardened, homegrown terrorists and seek to continue their work in Australia — and it's not a concern just of this country."