Aussie fighters being trained by Islamic State to attack Western targets

FOREIGN Minister Julie Bishop says she is “deeply concerned” about reports that Australians are being trained to conduct terror attacks against the West.

FOREIGN Minister Julie Bishop says she is “deeply concerned” about reports that Australians are being trained to conduct terror attacks against the West.

Ms Bishop said her department has confirmed reports that 10 Australians are being trained in by Islamic State in a specialist English-speaking unit in Syria, The Australian reported today.

Their training not only involves planning direct attacks, but it is also looking at recruiting others to engage in terrorist activity.

“ISIL has already used Australians in its propaganda videos and it is likely that they will seek to use their English-language ability to spread their poisonous ideology into Australia and other nations,’’ she told The Australian.

Terrorism expert Professor Gregory Barton told news.com.au said the threat of IS training fighters to attack the West had been building “for some time”.

He said concern had been building for some time, especially when combined with previous threats to carry out “suicide missions and lone wolf attacks”.

Even though there had been half-a-dozen or so attacks thwarted recently, including one that allegedly targeted Anzac Day events in Melbourne.

“But one day there is a concern one will catch us by surprise.”

The unit, called ‘Anwar al-Awlaki Battalion, has existed since at least the start of the year — but the fact Australians were part of it could be a concern for local law enforcement.

In many ways the formation of a specialist unit targeting the West was a “natural progression” of what security agencies had been fearing could happen.

“What we’ve been fearing is that if IS is finding it’s struggling in the Middle East or if it feels it needs to reassert its importance for the community it’s trying to impress, then pushing the button and launching more attacks in western countries...We’ll see the tempo of those attacks increase. And that’s been a concern really for a long time.”

He said many of what IS had done was take from the al-Qaeda playbook which “aggressively focus on is how to launch attacks in the West.”

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Originally published as Aussie fighters being trained by Islamic State to attack Western targets