Australia’s counterterrorism group arrests seven teenagers in in a single day raids | Crime Information

Greater than 400 officers have been concerned in raids throughout Sydney following the stabbing of an Assyrian bishop final week.

Australian police have arrested seven youngsters as they launched a collection of “anti-terror raids” following final week’s stabbing of an Assyrian Orthodox bishop.

Greater than 400 cops executed 13 search warrants at properties throughout Sydney in a single day, with the suspects thought-about an instantaneous risk, police mentioned on Wednesday. Intelligence officers warned that counterterrorism instances are more and more targeted on minors “weak to radicalisation”.

Officers mentioned the seven detainees, aged 15 to 17, have been linked to a community of which a 16-year-old member had allegedly been concerned in a latest assault on a bishop, which happened throughout a livestreamed sermon at a church in western Sydney on April 15. The raids have been spurred by concern that the community could have been plotting additional assaults and posed an “unacceptable threat” to the general public, they added.

5 different youngsters have been additionally being questioned by a joint counterterrorism group, comprising federal and state police in addition to the Australian Safety Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), the nation’s fundamental home spy company, and the New South Wales Crime Fee, which specialises in counterterrorism and organised crime.

“We’ll allege that these people adhered to a religiously motivated, violent extremist ideology,” New South Wales Police Deputy Commissioner David Hudson mentioned.

“It was thought-about that the group … posed an unacceptable threat and risk to the folks of New South Wales,” he mentioned, including that investigations had satisfied the authorities that an assault was “seemingly”.

‘Susceptible’

Police have been fast to explain the stabbing of the bishop final week as a “terrorist” act, which they mentioned was fuelled by “religiously motivated extremism”.

The suspect of final week’s knife assault, which injured the bishop and one other priest, was charged on Friday with committing a terrorist act.

The assault led to unrest in the local people, and western Sydney has been on edge since.

Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Krissy Barrett mentioned investigators had discovered no proof that the community had any particular targets or relating to the potential timing of any supposed “violent act”.

She mentioned the police operation was not linked to the upcoming Anzac Day on Thursday. The general public vacation, when Australians bear in mind their conflict lifeless, has been a “goal of extremists” previously.

ASIO Director-Common Mike Burgess confirmed that his organisation was concerned in Wednesday’s operation.

“Australia’s safety service is all the time doing its factor to supply safety intelligence that permits the police to take care of these issues when we’ve got rapid threats to life or anything that’s evolving,” Burgess mentioned.

Investigations of minors peaked at 50 p.c of ASIO’s “precedence counterterrorism caseload” just a few years in the past. After falling again, the variety of minors beneath investigation is rising once more for causes together with social media content material, Burgess mentioned.

“They’re a weak cohort,” he warned.