Four people were arrested in Australia yesterday over the terror-linked murder of a police employee after coordinated raids by more than 200 police officers on properties across Sydney.
Those seized in the dawn operation were aged between 16 and 22, and they face questioning over the killing on Friday last week of Curtis Cheng outside the New South Wales police headquarters.
Farhad Jabar, 15, who authorities said was born in Iran of Iraqi and Kurdish background, and had no previous criminal history, reportedly shot the 58-year-old in the back of the head while shouting religious slogans.
The teenager was gunned down in an exchange of fire with police special constables soon afterward.
Reports said the homes of three of the men arrested yesterday were previously targeted in Australia’s biggest counterterrorism raids a year ago.
New South Wales Deputy Commissioner Catherine Burn confirmed some of those detained were known to police, but declined to elaborate on their connection to Jabar.
“Time will clearly tell about what their associations may have been leading up to the events on Friday,” she said, adding that Jabar had not been on the radar. “We have a great deal of information that we have to actually go through. Whether or not they inspired it, I don’t know at this particular point in time.”
Asked if police were working under the assumption that the teenager did not act alone, she replied: “We definitely have our suspicion he did not act alone.”
On Tuesday, a student who attended the same school as Jabar was arrested and charged over alleged posts on social media threatening police, with his home searched and two laptops seized.
He was also charged with assaulting and intimidating police, and resisting arrest when he was stopped on his way to Arthur Phillip High School, close to where the shooting took place.
The 17-year-old, who has not been named, was given strict conditional bail and is to face a juvenile court on Nov. 9.
Earlier police said that five suspects had been arrested, but later changed the number to four.
Investigators have yet to establish why Cheng, a police accountant, was targeted, although Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has said the attack “appears to have been an act of terrorism.”
Burn confirmed it was being treated as such.
“It’s difficult because we don’t really know the motivation of the 15-year-old,” she said. “However, what we are investigating is a terrorism offense. So what we would suggest and we suspect is that there was some influence, whether it was ideologically, religious or politically motivated, that determined and influenced the 15-year-old to go and commit this horrendous act of violence.”
Authorities on Sunday searched a mosque Jabar is believed to have attended, with police saying some of those arrested yesterday also used the facility.
Canberra is concerned about the prospect of lone-wolf attacks by individuals inspired by groups such as Islamic State.
The country lifted its terror threat alert to high a year ago, introduced new national security laws and has conducted several counterterrorism raids to address the concerns.
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