Arrests point to terror backing
AUTHORITIES are almost certain the 15- year- old who killed a Sydney police accountant did not act alone and could be linked to several men who were arrested yesterday after also being targeted in terror raids last year.
Some of those arrested in dawn raids across western Sydney yesterday morning had attended the same Parramatta mosque where 15- year- old Farhad Khalil Mohammad Jabar spent time on Friday before he shot and killed accountant Curtis Cheng at the nearby police headquarters.
NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Catherine Burn says authorities suspect those arrested have some knowledge of Friday’s shooting and could have influenced Jabar.
They included past and present students of Arthur Phillip High School, the same school attended by Jabar, including a 16- year- old who was in the same year.
More than 200 armed officers raided homes in Guilford, Wentworthville, Merrylands and Marsfield at 6am yesterday, arresting four males aged between 16 and 22.
At least three of the four were also targeted last September as part of Operation Appleby, the nation’s largest counterterrorism operation.
One of the addresses raided included the Guildford home of Omarjan Azari, arrested as part of Operation Appleby and later charged with conspiring to commit murder and doing an act in preparation for a terrorist attack. Azari was alleg- edly acting on instructions from Australia’s most senior Islamic State recruit Mohammad Ali Baryalei to kill “a random unbeliever”.
Baryalei, who was killed in Syria, was also known to attend the Parramatta mosque.
Those detained yesterday included Raban Alou, 18, arrested at a home in Wentworthville where his elder brother Kawa was targeted in the raids last September, and Marsfield man Mustafa Durani. Durani, 22, is also a former student of Arthur Phillip High. Two men, both aged 22, have since been released, a police spokeswoman said.
Ms Burn said it was a “very serious concern that in the heart of our community there is attack planning that is under way”.
Police were investigating the roles of those arrested. Ms Burn said authorities were still unsure of Jabar’s motivation but suspect “there was some influence” that was either of an ideological, religious or political nature.
“We definitely have our suspicion he did not act alone,” she said.
“We have some confirmation of some of the people we’re interested in attending the mosque. I think it is important though that again it is early days and any substantive link cannot necessarily be established.”
Asked why Jabar was not on the radar of counterterrorism agencies, Ms Burn said he was “not somebody we would have assessed as a threat”.