24 Jan 2015 The Weekend Australian CAMERON STEWART PAUL MALEY
30 WOMEN TRAVEL TO ISLAMIC STATE REGION 90 AUSTRALIANS HAVE NOW JOINED FIGHT LOCAL TERROR CELL HARD TO CRACK
THE number of Australians falling under the spell of the Islamic State terror group is growing at home and abroad, with more than 90 Australian foreign fighters now in the Middle East, bolstered by an exodus of local Islamic women to the self-declared caliphate.
In a new development, up to 30 Australian women have travelled to the war-torn region in recent months to join their fugitive partners or to become brides of Islamic State fighters. They have taken several children with them.
Meanwhile, in Australia, the number of people identified by security agencies as Islamic State supporters has continued to increase despite counter-terror raids across the country in recent months and the bloody highprofile attacks in Sydney’s Martin Place and in Paris.
Authorities remain especially concerned by a small, hard-core cell in Sydney that has been disrupted by raids associated with Operation Appleby but that is still considered to have the intent to launch attacks in Australia.
Security sources say in recent months there has been an “inexorable growth’’ in the number of people in Australia who claim to support Islamic State, but the capacity for would-be terrorists to conduct a large-scale, co-ordinated attack remains limited, with authorities more concerned about the potential for lone-wolf attacks.
The number of Australians now thought to be fighting with extremist groups in Syria and Iraq is believed to have risen steadily from about 75 late last year to about 90 today, although that includes the recent identification of several fighters whose whereabouts were unclear until recently.
Authorities believe that up to five Australian jihadists used the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia in October as a cover to leave the country and take up arms with terror groups in Syria and Iraq.
ASIO has cancelled the passports of about 90 local extremists to thwart suspected plans to travel to the Middle East.
In recent months, authorities have seen a sudden exodus of Islamic women who they believe have left Australia to travel to extremist strongholds in Syria and Iraq.
Up to 30 women are believed to have either left Australia for these regions or to be planning to do so.
A small number of these are considered ideologically motivated enough to potentially become fighters themselves, but most are believed to have left the country to join with Australian fighters already over there or become brides for other Islamic State fighters.
This has led to speculation that many of the Australian foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq do not intend to return to the country.
Under recently introduced counter-terror laws, these women may be committing an offence by entering prescribed terrorist zones in Syria, even if they do not take up arms themselves.
Two Australian Somalian women, aged 18 and 20, left Sydney for Syria last month reportedly to offer themselves as jihadi brides. In a series of online posts, one of the women said she wanted to “marry a Mujahid (jihad fighter) and die along with him as a martyr”.
“Pray that my dream of going to Syria is fulfilled. I want to bring it up with my mum but I’m afraid to do so … Australia is nice but I would rather be in Syria.”
Security agencies say a growing proportion of male jihadists seeking to fight overseas are selfradicalised “cleanskins’’ who are leaving the country without the assistance of established jihadist recruitment rings in Australia. This is making it harder for authorities to identify those seeking to travel to extremist strongholds.
Several of these would-be fighters are believed to have been turned back by Turkish authorities in Istanbul after their families alerted Australian authorities that they had left the country with the suspected intention of joining Islamic State.
Turkey remains the most popular entry point for foreign fighters seeking to join extremist groups, despite growing diplomatic pressure on the Turkish government to tighten its porous border with Syria and Iraq.
Despite continued outflow of foreign Australian fighters, no fighters have returned to Australia for the past eight months.
Several who returned before that time are thought to have fought with the extremist group Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria, but no returnees are believed to have taken up arms with Islamic State.
Those fighters who do return are liable to face criminal charges under the recently toughened anti-terror laws.