Australian PM: Parliament ’Potential ISIL Target’

Local Editor

Federal police are to take over security at Australia's parliament, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Friday, describing the building as a potential terror target, following revelations that the "ISIL" extremists were plotting "demonstration executions".

"Parliament House certainly is a potential target," Abbott said.

He further added that "there has been chatter amongst these terrorist support networks for some time about possible attacks on government here in Australia."

Acting on intelligence, federal police would take over security inside and outside the buildings in Canberra, the prime minister told Seven network television.

His comments came a day after hundreds of police officers staged a major pre-dawn operation across Sydney and Brisbane on Thursday detaining 15 people.
One has been charged with terrorism-related offenses and nine released, police said.

At least one gun was seized, along with a sword.

Omarjan Azari, 22, appeared in a Sydney court and was remanded in custody, charged with planning a terrorist act that prosecutors alleged was designed to "shock, horrify and terrify" the community.

The video was reportedly then to be sent back to "ISIL's" media unit in the Middle East, where it would be released to the public.
The raids came a week after Australia lifted the terror threat level to "high" for the first time in a decade on growing concern about militants returning from fighting in Iraq and Syria.

Abbott expanded on his comments Thursday that public beheadings had been ordered by "ISIL" militants.

"Earlier this week an Australian who is a senior ISIL operative in Syria instructed his networks here in Australia to look to commit demonstration executions," he told Seven television.

In parallel, he mentioned: "Because we believed that a demonstration execution was likely quickly, we acted as we did to disrupt this particular network."

The government believes up to 60 Australians are fighting alongside "ISIL", while another 100 were actively working to support the movement at home.
"The vast majority of Australian Muslims are absolutely first-class Australians," he said.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team