WORLD_ SYRIA_ Militant Australians join Sunnis in global conflicts, including Iraq: Bishop

Militant Australians join Sunnis in global conflicts, including Iraq: Bishop

Foreign affairs minister estimates 150 Australians are fighting jihad, most of them in Syria

Bridie Jabour
theguardian.com, Thursday 19 June 2014 11.43 AEST
Jump to comments (42)

Julie Bishop: the government is 'deeply concerned' about Australians joining Isis. Photograph: Alan Porritt/AAP

About 150 Australians are fighting with Sunni militants in conflicts around the world, and the government is particularly concerned about jihadists joining the Iraq conflict, the foreign affairs minister has revealed.

Julie Bishop said her most recent intelligence briefing, on Thursday morning, estimated there to be about 150 Australians involved, most of them based in Syria.

“It is extraordinary. There are about 150 Australians who have been or are still fighting with opposition groups in Syria and beyond. In Syria it seems that over a period of time they have moved from supporting the more moderate opposition groups to the more extreme and that includes this brutal extremist group, Isis [Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant],” she told ABC Radio National, referring to the group that has taken northern and central parts of Iraq in recent weeks.

The director general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (Asio), David Irvine, told Senate estimates last month it was believed 10 to 12 Australians had died in the Syrian conflict.

Bishop said the jihadists posed a threat to Australia if they return, and the government was “deeply concerned” about Australians joining Isis.

“These are brutal people. The executions and the killings and their boasting of it on social media makes this a particularly virulent form of terrorism. And these people are so extreme that al-Qaida is even distancing itself from them,” she said.

“Now, we are concerned that Australians are working with them, becoming radicalised, learning the terrorist trade. And if they come back to Australia, of course, it poses a security threat. And we're doing what we can to identify them.”

Bishop’s comments came after Fairfax Media reported Australians had travelled to Iraq to fight with Isis after initially leaving Australia to fight in the Syrian conflict.

Bishop said she had cancelled “a number” of passports on the advice of Australia’s intelligence agencies.

Asked if Australia should support the regime of Nouri al-Maliki, whose Shia-led government is accused of fanning anti-Sunni sectarian violence in Iraq, Bishop said it was “not a good government”.

“It is the only government in place in Iraq at present,” she said. “[Maliki’s] now calling for national unity, but that's a start. We need to see a political solution because a military solution could be catastrophic.”

Irvine said, “They're supporting some really nasty offshoots of al-Qaida in Syria. The next concern we have is those people will come home with heightened training in terrorist techniques, some battle experience perhaps, and a heightened commitments to jihadi terrorism.”


Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc . 
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị . 



conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
19062014
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC