‘Terrorism’ arrests in Australia over murder of police employee

A number of people arrested in dawn raids across western Sydney on Wednesday had attended Arthur Phillip High School, the same school as 15-year-old gunman Farhad Khalil Mohammad Jabar, who on Friday shot dead police accountant Curtis Cheng.

Jabar, a teenager of Iraqi-Kurdish decent but born in Iran, gunned down Cheng, a 17-year veteran of the police force’s finance department, outside the Parramatta Police Station which houses a few of the state’s top detectives on Friday afternoon.

Other global drivers could be linked to seeing Muslims being persecuted around the world, whether it be in prisons at Abu Ghraib or Guantánamo Bay, or as part of the Palestinian conflict. “That’s not going to change in the foreseeable future”, he said. “Whilst they exist, they will continue to export terror into Australia”, he added.

Ms Burns said NSW police still had no clear idea about the motives for the attack.

Neil Gaughan, acting deputy commissioner of the Australian Federal Police, confirmed reports that Australian police were working with officials in Turkey to locate Jabar’s sister, who is believed to have flown to Istanbul shortly before Mr Cheng was killed.

A spokeswoman for the AFP, which takes in ACT Policing, said it was not appropriate to discuss any specifics relating to the security of its staff or infrastructure.

The joint counter-terrorism team executed search warrants on Wednesday and detained four people in relation to their investigation into the fatal shooting of 58-year-old Cheng outside Parramatta police station on Friday.

“They [IS] have a very sophisticated social media operation that does that”, Mr Keenan said.

But he said there was no evidence that she was involved in the attack.

The men made sure they only communicated with Jabar at the mosque and not through social media, Fairfax has been told.

“What we can also do that is powerful is work with the community to make sure people in the community are on our side helping us with this challenge”.

He also it was important to “separate Farhad’s actions from his faith”.

“However, what we are investigating is a terrorism offence”.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has said the attack “appears to have been an act of terrorism”.