SYDNEY: Australian police said seven people who posed an “unacceptable risk and threat” to the public have been arrested after anti-terror raids that involved more than 400 officers Wednesday.
Police claimed that the people were connected to a 16-year-old who was accused of stabbing an Assyrian priest in Sydney and who practiced a “religiously motivated radical worldview.”
Although no particular goal was known, Deputy Police Commissioner Dave Hudson said it was “likely” the team was planning an attack.
” Their behavior, whilst under monitoring, led us to believe that, if they were to undertake any action, we would not be able to avoid that”, he told writers.
” And we believed, through the analysis, that it was probable that an attack may result”.
Authorities said all the criminals were adolescents.
A 16-year-old think next year slashed the head and chest of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, causing a riot by fans of the Assyrian Christian religion in northern Sydney.
Police were fast to explain the teen’s behavior as a “terrorist” work.
A joint counter-terrorism task force combining state and federal police troops and the intelligence services ASIO launched a probe as a result of the title.
Emmanuel has a nearly 200, 000 website followers, which has galvanized many people with his condemnation of Covid- 19 vaccines and shutdowns as well as Islam.
The place is a hub for Sydney’s little Christian Persian community, many of whom fled persecution and war in Iraq and Syria.
