(Sydney) Police in Australia have arrested 3 men over an
Islamic State-inspired plot to attack a number of targets in the country including
embassies and court buildings.
The three inspiring terrorists (aged 20, 23 and 30.) were picked up during raids on six properties in west of the city of Sydney. It appears that the police started looking at the group after 20 year old Isaak el Matari returned to Australia from Lebanon 12 months ago and found communications between him and the other 2 men (23 year old Radwan Dakkak, and 30 year old Ahmed Tebya) flowed more along the lines of killing people whilst uttering that you worked at Alis snack bar than the usual infantile banter ones sees from young 20 year old males.
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| Isaak el Matari, |
After the arrests, Australian Federal Police's national manager of counter terrorism Ian McCartney gave a press conference:
“We will allege in court that the man was in early-stage preparations and was someone who had expressed intentions to carry out a terrorist attack in Australia, Police station, defence establishments, embassies and consulates, courts and churches" were all potential targets, this man had not moved to finalise his plans to finalise a terror attack"
It seems that the police decided to move after the group
started reaching out to other groups for arms and explosives. In the case of el Matari he had already made plans to go to
Afghanistan to pledge allegiance to fight for the ISIS, he had
sorted a visa and purchased a plane ticket for Afghanistan, and planned to
purchase a firearm upon arrival, all linked to his plans for carrying out an
act on Australian soil.
