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Australian teenager denies joining IS or al-Qaida in Syria

Xinhua, June 17, 2015 Adjust font size:

An Australian teenager who was feared to have joined a terrorist organization in Syria has written on Facebook that he is only there doing humanitarian work.

Oliver Bridgeman, 18, left his hometown of Toowoomba in Queensland in March, saying he was going to do aid work in Indonesia.

But he had reportedly joined the Al Nusra Front, the official Syrian affiliate of al-Qaida.

His parents insisted he had not joined the conflict or taken up arms for a terrorist group after leaving Australia, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.

Bridgeman said he was working in parts of Syria which were free from fighting.

"I am not associated or fighting for any terrorist organization or rebel group inside or outside Syria," Bridgeman wrote on Wednesday morning.

"My only activity in Syria is the distribution of medical supplies, food and basic life essentials inside the rural parts and Turkish boarders of Syria."

"Even though Syria is in the middle of a civil war I have never feared for my life or safely (sic) since I started two months ago. "

About 100 Australians are estimated to be in the conflict zones in Syria and Iraq. Endi