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A global terrorism expert says a possible terrorism threat within Tasmania is concerning. A story published in The Age on Saturday outlined a journalist's dealings last year with Melbourne recruiter Neil Prakash. Following his undercover work from May 2015 onwards, it is alleged that Prakash had asked the journalist to kill several Australian journalists writing about Islamic State’s influence in Australia. Upon the journalist’s refusal, Prakash allegedly told the reporter about four “brothers” in Tasmania who had been ordered to attack journalists, and that intel could be provided to assist in this process. Assistant Commissioner Glenn Frame said Tasmania Police was liaising with interstate and national colleagues to investigate the matter. “Tasmania Police is aware of the claims in relation to Tasmania made in a national newspaper today,” he said. “We are liaising with our national and interstate colleagues. However, we do not comment on operational matters.” It was reported in May of this year by Fairfax Media that Prakash was killed in a US air strike in Iraq. Global terrorism expert Professor Greg Barton said the threat was a concern, and that Prakash had a broad circle of friends. “He’s also had others that he probably never met face-to-face that he met online,” Professor Barton said. He said although the concentration of ISIS recruiters had been in Sydney and Melbourne, an attack was possible due to the wide-ranging network of terror groups. Prakash, 24, was said to be a key player in terror recruitment, and inspired failed terrorist plots in Australia. On Friday, up to 85 people were killed when a truck deliberately ploughed through a crowd of people celebrating Bastille Day. Reports on Saturday night indicate that Islamic State has claimed formal responsibility for the attack. “Certainly we’ve seen with the attack in Nice that once again it’s somebody who was local to an area who was persuaded they should go and launch an attack and get credit for it,” Professor Barton said. “If we had a kid in Tasmania, I say kid because we’re dealing with teenagers and twenty-something people mostly, who for some reason was persuaded that it’s something he should do and he should respond to this, then you’d expect them to work in an area they’re familiar with.”

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