Police say they are treating yesterday’s shooting and hostage situation in Melbourne, which left two people dead, including a gunman linked to plans to attack the Holsworthy Army base, as terrorism.
Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton said the gunman, 29-year-old Yacqub Khayre from Roxburgh Park in Melbourne’s north, had a long criminal history and was recently released from prison on parole.
Khayre was charged and acquitted by a jury over a plot to attack the Holsworthy Army barracks in Sydney in 2009.
Three of his co-accused were found guilty of planning the terrorist attack as payback for Australia’s military action in the Middle East.
Earlier, the Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for yesterday’s siege, in which a man was killed, several police were injured and a woman was held against her will before Khayre was shot dead.
Commissioner Ashton said the siege was being treated as a “terrorism incident”, but warned that IS’s claim was “the sort of thing they jump up and say a lot” and there was no evidence to indicate Khayre was acting on a message from overseas.
“[Khayre] has a long criminal history with us, but also from what we’re piecing together comments he made related to ISIS and Al Qaeda certainly for us put this in the terrorism category,” he said…
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