CANBERRA, Australia — A former Australian government minister drew criticism from the foreign minister on Thursday for visiting the Iraqi front line in a battle between the Islamic State movement and Kurdish peshmerga.
Wyatt Roy became the youngest-ever Australian federal lawmaker when he was voted into Parliament in 2010 at the age of 20. He was assistant minister for innovation when he lost his seat in elections in July.
Australia’s Special Broadcasting Service on Thursday showed video provided by Roy from Irbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. The video appears to show Roy crouching to avoid gunfire at a peshmerga position at Domez near the town of Sinjar west of Mosul a week ago as it was attacked by Islamic State fighters.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Roy did not ask for Australian government help to travel to Iraq. “It is irresponsible of Wyatt Roy to travel to the front line of the conflict … in a region regarded as very high risk,” Bishop said in a statement.
Roy could not immediately be contacted for comment Thursday. SBS said he was on a flight out of Iraq.