Update: Seven-year old boy displays severed head of soldier

Update

A U.S. government official is commenting on a photo depicting a young boy holding a severed human head.

Secretary of State John Kerry says a photograph of an Australian-born 7-year-old boy clutching the severed head of a Syrian soldier is "one of the most disturbing, stomach-turning, grotesque photographs ever displayed."

The Australian newspaper reported Monday that the photo was taken in northern Syrian and posted on Twitter by the boy's convicted terrorist father, Khaled Sharrouf.

Kerry says the photo shows why the militant group Islamic State poses such a threat to the world.

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A boy's relatives want him sent home after a photograph is published.

The grandfather of a 7-year-old boy pictured clutching the severed head of a Syrian soldier has urged the Australian government to bring the boy home.

Newspaper reports tell us truck driver Peter Nettleton told The Australian newspaper that he was horrified to see on its front page on Monday a photograph of his grandson lifting the head with both hands by the hair.

The newspaper says the photo was taken in northern Syria and posted by the boy's convicted terrorist father, Khaled Sharrouf.