Australia's most wanted terrorist arrested

Australia's most wanted terrorist Neil Prakash has been arrested.

Prakash, a senior Islamic State (IS) recruiter and terror plot instigator, was arrested on his way into Turkey after Australian authorities provided their Turkish counterparts with intelligence that Prakash was planning to enter the country.

It is believed that Turkish officials are negotiating with several countries who want to question Prakash about terrorist activity in their own counties.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) first used a first-instance warrant for Prakash's arrest in August 2015.

The Australian government announced in May that they believed Prakash had been killed by a U.S. airstrike on the Iraqi city of Mosul, which the government said would be a significant blow to IS recruitment of Australians but it has since emerged that Prakash was only wounded.

Prakash, formerly a Melbourne man, was reportedly involved in foiled terror plots on Australia's national day of remembrance for troops who died in war, Anzac Day, in 2015 and 2016.

George Brandis, Australia's Attorney-General (AG), described Prakash as "the principal Australian reaching back from the Middle East into Australia."

Michael Keenan, Australia's Minister for Justice and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister (PM) for Counter-Terrorism, said he could not confirm Prakash's arrest out of principle.

"As a matter of longstanding practice, the Australian government does not comment on matters of intelligence or law enforcement operations," Keenan said in a statement.

"The government reported Prakash's death in May on the basis of advice from the U.S. government that he had been killed in an air strike.

"But as we have said previously, the government's capacity to confirm reports of deaths in either Syria or Iraq is limited.

"Our agencies work closely with their international partners to investigate and prosecute cases involving alleged foreign fighters, which are inherently complex, protracted and transnational in nature."

Levi West, director of terror studies at Adelaide's Charles Sturt University, said Prakash's terrorist activities would have been "substantially disrupted" by the wound he sustained in the U.S. airstrike.

"I think the biggest scalp was earlier when we removed him from the battlefield, so to speak," West told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Saturday.

"The fact that we now have potentially an extradition and trial is an additional benefit over the top of that."

"But the real victory is having removed his capacity to recruit and influence Western ears." Endit