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News > World

Australian Police Bust ISIS Terror Plot in Sydney

  • Australian police stand at the site of a siege at the Buckingham Serviced Apartments in Melbourne, Australia, June 6, 2017.

    Australian police stand at the site of a siege at the Buckingham Serviced Apartments in Melbourne, Australia, June 6, 2017.

Published 2 July 2019
Opinion

Australia, a staunch U.S. ally, has been on heightened alert for attacks by home-grown radicals since 2014 and authorities say they have thwarted 16 major plots since.

The Australian police’s counter-terror units announced on Tuesday that they had foiled a plot by the Islamic State terrorist group to attack a range of public buildings and embassies in Sydney.

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According to the Australian police statement, their forces arrested two men, aged 20 and 23, after learning of their plot to carry out terrorist attacks in the large city of Sydney.

 “We will say that they had a number of targets, including police stations, defense establishments, embassies and councils, courts and churches,” Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Ian McCartney told reporters in Sydney.

“There are still those people within the community who wish to do us harm,” he said. “I want to say they don’t represent the Islamic faith. Their actions are criminal and they represent hatred and terror.”

Police made the arrests because they had compiled sufficient evidence for charges, McCarthy said, but offered few details.

A third man, aged 30, is charged with welfare fraud.

The police did not name those charged, who are expected to appear in court later in the day or on Wednesday.

The so-called Islamic State caliphate was established in 2014 and although it has been driven in the past year from all territory it once held in Syria and Iraq, authorities say it remains a threat, as an underground movement.

McCarthy said the man charged with plotting had been tracked by Australian authorities since mid-2018, when he drew their attention by traveling to Lebanon.

He now faces life imprisonment, if convicted. The others face sentences as long as 10 years.

The men knew each other on social media, police added. In addition to the Sydney plot, the 20-year-old planned to travel to Afghanistan to fight there for Islamic State, and the 23-year-old was prominent among extremists online globally.

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