Police shot dead the gunman, Yacqub Khayre, who they said had a long criminal history, on Monday after he killed a man in the foyer of an apartment block in Melbourne, Australia's second-largest city, and held a woman hostage inside.
Police did not regard the Islamic State group's claim of responsibility for the Melbourne violence as evidence that it was planned. Monday's incident "underlines the need for us to be constantly vigilant, never to be deterred, always defiant, in the face of Islamist terrorism", he said.
Police say Khayre arranged to meet an escort at the apartments and shot Hao after she arrived, then held the 36-year-old woman hostage for two hours.
The terrorist burst out of the apartment at about 6pm, firing at and injuring three officers before being shot dead by police.
Authorities have identified the attacker as a Somali-born man, Yacqub Khayre, 29, who lived with his mother in a Melbourne suburb.
Amaq said the attack was launched to exact revenge for Australia's participation in a US-led coalition fighting against Daesh in Syria and Iraq.
A deadly siege in the Australian city of Melbourne which occurred on Monday is now being treated as a terrorist attack, Australia's Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has announced. He was acquitted in a 2009 terror plot to kill military personnel at Holsworthy army barracks in Sydney.
"The executor of the Melbourne attack in Australia is a soldier of the Islamic State and he carried out the attack in response to appeals to target citizens of coalition states", it said.
Top Aides to UK PM Quit After Election Losses
Theresa May also forced her two closest aides to quit on Saturday after they have taken the blame for the election campaign. May said Barwell would help her "reflect on the election and why it did not deliver the result I hoped for".
In a phone call Khayre allegedly made to an Australian news station on the day of the attack, he reportedly said, "This is for IS [Islamic State], this is for Al Qaeda".
It comes after the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack. He had. a very long record of violence.
The prime minister questioned why Khayre was not behind bars, calling it "a shocking cowardly crime".
Victoria Police said their advice from the corrections department was that Khayre qualified for parole and had been obeying the terms of his parole since November past year.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews wants ASIO and the Australian Federal Police to make direct submissions to state parole boards for offenders on the terror watch list. Three people were convicted of conspiracy for that plot, which police thwarted before it could be executed. "And making sure that all the intelligence that was coming and information coming from this investigation is being passed around to all state jurisdictions so everybody is on the same page", Australia's acting police commissioner Michael Phelan said.
Khayre had been on parole since late previous year and had a long record of serious criminal offending including offences for drugs, firearms and violence and was being investigated for possible links to terrorism.
The Herald Sun reports that in 2012 he was sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison for aggravated burglary and beating a woman in her home.
Comments