Australian bid to extradite IS recruiter

Australia's most wanted terrorist Neil Prakash could face justice on home soil after being arrested in Turkey.

The former Melbourne man is reportedly alive and under arrest by Turkish authorities despite reports he was killed six months ago in northern Iraq.

Prakash, who is linked to several failed Australian terror plots to kill innocent people, was only injured, not killed in Mosul on April 29, as previously announced, The New York Times reports.

A spokesperson for Justice Minister Michael Keenan on Saturday said the man, believed to be Prakash, is now subject to a formal extradition request from Australia.

"An individual we believe to be Neil Prakash has been arrested and detained in Turkey," she said in a statement.

"The arrest of the person we believe is Prakash is the result of close collaboration between Australian and Turkish authorities."

Jacinta Carroll, director of the Counter Terrorism Policy Centre at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, believes it likely Australia will be given priority to prosecute the militant, given his influence and links to attacks here.

Prakash was linked to a failed Melbourne plot to behead a police officer on Anzac Day last year and to Numan Haider, an 18-year-old who was killed after stabbing two police officers in Melbourne in 2014.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in May named Prakash the most senior Australian operative in IS.