Organisation’s focus on lone-wolf strikes could be attributed to setbacks in Syria and Iraq, say counter-terrorism experts

Police and terrorism experts have said the public should not be concerned by Islamic State “propaganda” published in an online magazine on Monday calling for its followers to commit lone-wolf attacks at Australian sites.

“Kill them on the streets of Brunswick, Broadmeadows, Bankstown and Bondi,” the magazine, Rumiyah, said. “Kill them at the MCG, the SCG, the Opera House and even in their backyards.



“Stab them, shoot them, poison them and run them down with your vehicles. Kill them wherever you find them until the hollowness of their arrogance is filled with terror and they find themselves on their knees with their backs broken under the weight of regret for having waged a war against the believers, and by Allah’s will, and then through your sacrifices, this ummah will be victorious.”



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Victoria police’s chief commissioner, Graham Ashton, urged the public not to be alarmed and said much of the material had previously been published in Arabic. “This is essentially propaganda,” he said on Tuesday. “[Australians] shouldn’t be fearful of going out on to the streets in relation to terrorism.”

Ashton said while there would be increased police numbers at the AFL finals played in Victoria, that was always going to be the case compared with home-and-away games. “If people are planning on going to the footy this weekend, they can do so confidently,” he said.

The state’s premier, Daniel Andrews, implored people to continue going about their business. “That’s a sign of strength and sends a very clear message that we will not be intimidated by these sorts of cowardly threats,” he said.

Prof Greg Barton, a terrorism expert and chair in global Islamic politics at Deakin University, agreed that the threats were not something the public should worry about. “It’s something the authorities and police should worry about,” he said.

“There’s some frustrated young people out there that might do something rash and that’s what IS is gambling on. This is as much as anything a crowdsourcing bid, who wants to try to be famous.”

Barton said the increased focus on lone-wolf attacks in Isis propaganda could be attributed to setbacks on the ground in Syria and Iraq, but that should not be a source of complacency.

“This group is a hybrid organisation so it is important to really reduce them down to the bare minimum on the ground in the Middle East. But even when we’ve done that, they’ve got a global insurgency.

“Particularly the last 12 months they’ve pushed hard on that and they’ve been saying in their propaganda, ‘Look, you can destroy us on the cities of Iraq and Syria but we’ll still be around, we’ll be in your cities.’”

The minister assisting the prime minister on counter-terrorism, Michael Keenan, said while the security environment was worse than two years ago the country’s security agencies were prepared.



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“People need to be assured that our agencies have the capability to protect us and we take appropriate measures to make sure any footy final or any place where a lot of people are gathering do have appropriate protections,” he told the Nine Network on Wednesday.



Keenan said Isis had an effective propaganda machine to spread its message in western countries. “Australia is not going to be immune from that,” he said.



But changes to counter-terrorism laws gave police and intelligence agencies more powers to intervene earlier if they were concerned about the possibility of attacks.



Malcolm Turnbull, who is attending a meeting of south-east Asian leaders in Laos, said the Isis call highlighted the necessity for strong regional cooperation on security.

“Sharing of intelligence is more important than ever before,” the prime minister said. “But we do have to be very alert to the actions of these lone actors, individuals who … for a variety of reasons, may be radicalised.”

• Australian Associated Press contributed to this report