Too dangerous to help granny rescue kids

Australia should not send diplomatic staff or soldiers into Syria to assist a Sydney grandmother's rescue mission of the five orphaned children of Islamic State fighter Khaled Sharrouf, federal Labor warns.

Acting Labor leader Tanya Plibersek said it is "simply too dangerous".

"I would not be urging the government to send Australian professional diplomatic, consular (staff) or defence personnel after them," she told reporters in Sydney.

The children's grandmother Karen Nettleton and solicitor Robert van Aalt are believed to have left Australia headed to the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa, where the children are said to be living.

Ms Nettleton's daughter, Tara, and the couple's children moved to Syria to join Sharrouf who was fighting with the terrorist group.

Ms Plibersek said taking the children to the war zone in the first place was an "act of child abuse" and she felt empathy for the children's plight.