Anti-ISIL fighter avoids arrest after returning from front line

A Melbourne man who has returned to Australia after fighting against the Islamic State in Iraq has avoided arrest.

This is despite new terror laws that hand possible sentences of life in prison to any Australian who travels to fight for or against ISIL.

The Australian Federal Police spoke to Khamis Gewargis Khamis on March 12, after he returned to Australia, about his involvement with Dwekh Nawsha, the Christian, Assyrian militia he joined which was stationed just 2km from the ISIL-held town of Batnaya, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

Khamis, an Iraqi-born call-centre operator who has a wife and two children in Melbourne, recently told a reporter he travelled to Iraq to "defend my land, my people, against Islamic State".

He said he sleeps in his uniform with his loaded gun against the wall next to him.

On his way home to Melbourne, Khamis was detained in Abu Dhabi for several hours where police questioned him on his whereabouts and his activities with Dwekh Nawsha.

He was also questioned after arriving in Melbourne but was released and has not been charged with any crime.

"Enquiries relating to his activities while overseas are ongoing and as such it is not appropriate to comment further at this time," an AFP spokesman said.