Australian police officers claim to have prevented terrorist bloodshed with the arrest of one Omarjan Azari. The cops acted after a senior member of the so-called Islamic State was reportedly found to be urging terrorist cells in Australia to behead one or more victims.

It is alleged he [Azari] conspired to commit the act with another man, Mohammad Baryalei, a former Sydney bouncer and actor of Afghan origin, reportedly an Islamic State leader. … The attorney general, George Brandis, said … that he believed the atrocities would have gone ahead, had it not been for the intervention of the security services, the Australian federal police and forces from Queensland and New South Wales.

The prosecution said Azari planned to “shock, horrify and potentially terrify” the public with public killings. He was refused bail. … Australian federal police Acting Commissioner Andrew Colvin said a violent attack had been planned for “the streets of New South Wales”. There were reports the plan was to kidnap someone from the street and behead them while filming it.

More than 800 police officers carried out a spate of raids in Sydney. Fifteen people were detained.

Colvin said the raids amounted to “the largest police operation of its type” in Australian history, eclipsing 2005’s Operation Pendennis, in which 13 men were arrested over a plot involving bombs in Sydney and Melbourne. Three guesses which religion those suspects followed.

