REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, CANBERRA - The Islamic State plot to carry out random beheadings in Sydney alleged by police is a simple and barbaric scheme that has shaken Australians. But terrorism experts on Friday questioned whether the ruthless movement had the capacity or inclination to sustain a terror campaign so far from the Middle East.
Police said they thwarted such a plot by detaining suspects and raiding more than a dozen properties across Sydney on Thursday.
The Islamic State militant group has beheaded three Westerners in the Middle East in recent weeks and recorded the brutal slayings to make propaganda videos widely condemned.
Two of the 15 people whom police had detained Thursday have been charged. Nine were freed before the day was over, and the rest released on Friday. Prime Minister Tony Abbott conceded it was difficult to safeguard the Australian population against such attacks.
"The regrettable reality is that to mount the kind of attacks which ISIL in Syria and in Iraq has in mind for Australia, all you need is a determined individual who will kill without compunction, a knife, an iPhone and a victim," Abbott told Seven Network television on Friday, using one of Islamic State's former names, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
Some terrorism experts saw the plot as a potential shift in Islamic State's focus from creating an Islamic caliphate in the Middle East. Others said it is more likely a symptom of policy confusion within a disparate group.
"If you have people coming in from different backgrounds from all these countries, when it comes to policy making, they're going to fight each other, they're going to kill each other," said Samuel Makinda, professor of International Relations and Security Studies at Murdoch University.
"On ISIS, I see no direct threat to Australia or to any other country at the moment except those in the Middle East," he added, using the movement's former name, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
The raids involving 800 federal and state police officers came in response to intelligence that an Islamic State group leader in Syria was calling on Australian supporters to kill, Abbott said.
Hundreds of Muslims in the Sydney suburb of Lakemba protested the raids on Thursday night, with speakers accusing the government of exploiting public fear in a bid to get contentious counterterrorism laws through Parliament.
Abbott defended the raids against accusations of overkill.
"It was a show of strength," Abbott told reporters. "It needed to be a show of strength. It needed to be a demonstration that we will respond with strength to any threat to our way of life and to our national security."
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