Spotlight on Global Jihad: Australia

Spotlight on Global Jihad: Australia

ראש משטרת מדינת ניו-סאות' ווילס במסיבת עיתונאים

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Written by The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center

NSW Police Commissioner in a news conference
NSW Police Commissioner in a news conference

Terrorist attack in Australia, possibly inspired by ISIS

On December 15, 2014, an armed man took over the Lindt café in the business center of Sydney, Australia, and held some 20 people hostage. He made two demands: to have an ISIS flag brought to the café and to talk with Australian Prime

Minister Tony Abbott. The hostages were forced to hang a jihadi flag (not an ISIS flag) in the shop window of the café. Videos appeared online, showing the hostages in the café using their cellphones (apparently under duress) to text the Australian and global media. After the armed man held the hostages for over 16 hours, the police stormed the café. The gunman and two of the hostages were killed in the exchange of fire. In addition, four people were injured, one of them a police officer.

The gunman was identified Haroun Munis, age 50, born in Iran, with a criminal record. At this stage, the connection between the perpetrator and ISIS is still unclear.

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The attack may have been inspired by ISIS and designed to express solidarity with ISIS. Another possibility is that the attack was not related to ISIS and the demand for an ISIS flag was made in order to ensure that the attack receives international media attention.

Reactions

Many social networks of jihadi organizations expressed satisfaction with the fact that Australia was attacked on its own soil. They noted that the attack was carried out in retaliation for the participation of Australia in the fighting against ISIS in Syria and Iraq. On some networks, it was claimed that the attack was carried out in response to ISIS spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani’s call on Muslims in the West to carry out terrorist attacks against civilians in their native countries.

Australia is one of the countries that have announced that they are joining the coalition led by the US against ISIS. As such, Australia has become a potential target for terrorism for jihadists who support ISIS and are inspired by it. In recent months, Australian authorities have expressed concern about Islamic terror attacks in the country.

On September 18, 2014, security forces arrested 15 jihadi operatives in Sydney, in light of information ISIS was planning to carry out mass terror attacks in Australia. The indictment filed against one of the detainees, Omarjan Azari, 22, states that he was involved in a plan to carry out random executions of people to terrorize the Australian public. According to Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, the detainees planned to carry out random public beheadings of passersby in Sydney.