Australia’s national top law enforcement official has publicly confirmed that counter-terrorism units are currently running eight independent investigations into women and children with known ties to ISIS fighters, a disclosure that comes amid a fresh wave of repatriations from Syrian detention camps and a high-profile recent terrorism charge.
Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Krissy Barrett outlined the scope of ongoing investigations during a Thursday appearance before a Senate estimates hearing, noting that probes are not limited to people who have already returned to Australian territory — a number of subjects of interest still remain overseas.
The confirmation of the eight active investigations follows the charging of 34-year-old Rayann El Houli earlier the same day. El Houli, who returned to Australia from Syria last year, faces two criminal allegations: entering and staying in a declared terrorist active zone, and formal membership of a proscribed terrorist organization. She made her first court appearance on the same day charges were filed.
One of the largest ongoing probes, codenamed Operation Howth, centers on three people — one man and two women — who are accused of traveling to Syria between 2013 and 2024 to join the Islamic State terror group. Commissioner Barrett told the hearing that two of the subjects, the women, returned to Australia with their children in September 2025 from the al-Hawl detention camp in northern Syria, a facility that has held thousands of family members of alleged ISIS fighters for years. The third subject, the man linked to the two women, remains imprisoned in a Middle Eastern prison, per police accounts.
After the two women’s 2025 repatriation, the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions initially concluded there was not enough admissible evidence to bring criminal charges against them. In line with that guidance, the Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team — a multi-agency unit made up of local Victoria Police, the AFP, and Australia’s national intelligence agency ASIO — chose to keep Operation Howth active while the women integrated into Australian communities.
Barrett explained that over the course of the ongoing six-month domestic investigation, and following the repatriation of another four women and their children from Syria just three weeks ago, investigators have obtained significant new evidence that ties back to the original Operation Howth probe, renewing its momentum.
Beyond Operation Howth, Barrett confirmed that a total of eight separate Joint Counter Terrorism Team investigations are active across the country, targeting family groups that either have returned from Syrian detention camps or still remain outside Australia. She pushed back against any assumptions that delays in filing criminal charges signal that investigations have been abandoned, pointing to El Houli’s charging as a clear example of how probes can take time to yield charges.
“Any perceived delay in charges does not indicate investigations have ceased. Today’s arrest and charge is a case in point,” Barrett told the hearing.
The commissioner outlined three core messages the AFP and its partner agencies want to communicate to the Australian public. First, the national force and its counter-terrorism partners remain fully committed to protecting community safety. Second, any alleged victims or witnesses with relevant information are still able to come forward to cooperate with investigations. Third, all individuals who have returned to Australia from conflict zones tied to ISIS remain subject to a broad range of active investigation strategies, regardless of whether charges have been filed yet.
Since 2019, a total of ten Australian citizens have been charged with terrorism-related and foreign incursion offences linked to travel to conflict zones: seven men and three women. Three of those women were charged earlier this year immediately after their return from Syria, and are currently before the courts facing a series of serious charges, including crimes against humanity and the possession of an individual as a slave.