Australian authorities were involved in identifying and locating top Australian terrorist Neil Prakash ahead of the deadly air strike that killed the Islamic state recruiter, the Turnbull government has revealed. 
And Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has warned Australians fighting with the Islamic State group they "will be targeted" following the precision killing of Prakash in Iraq last Friday night.
Both Attorney-General George Brandis and Immigration Minister Peter Dutton indicated that Australian intelligence or security officials had played a role in targeting Prakash ahead of the US air strike.
Senator Brandis told Sky News that "Australia did co-operate with the United States in relation to the identification and location of Prakash".
Mr Dutton told radio 2GB: "I just have nothing but praise for ASIO, for all of the intelligence and law enforcement and defence agencies who were involved. There is a lot of work as you can imagine that goes on for a long period of time behind the scenes to look at these targets and we do a lot of good work with the United States."
Prakash, who travelled from Melbourne to Syria as a relatively recent convert to Islam, was regarded as Australia's top terrorist recruiter for at least the past year.
Security sources said there was no obvious candidate to replace him as a poster boy who could push Islamic State ideology as well as inspire actual plots in Australia. However they cautioned that candidates would likely emerge, given there are still at an estimated 110 Australians fighting with extremists in Syria and Iraq.
Some sources stressed that the deaths of prominent jihadists such as Prakash helped dent the group's propaganda.
Melbourne University terrorism researcher Andrew Zammit said that Prakash had "become the most significant Australian publicly known to have joined IS".
Mr Zammit said Prakash was "unusual because he occupied all those roles".
Mr Turnbull confirmed that Prakash himself was a target of the strike, which also killed up to a dozen other Islamic State fighters.
The Prime Minister said so-called foreign fighters who travelled to the Middle East to join the Islamic State were enemies of Australia. "Australians who think they can go to Syria and Iraq and fight with Daesh have to recognise that they will be targeted. They will be targeted," he told Sky News.