Hostage situation that killed one person in Brighton, Australia has been claimed as an ISIS terror attack.

The suspect, Yacqub Khayre, after his 2009 acuital for the Holsworthy terror plot. APP

A hostage situation in Brighton, Australia that ended with one civilian dead, three cops wounded and the suspect shot dead has been claimed as a terror attack by ISIS. news.com.au The suspect, Yacqub Khayre was known to anti-terror police and was on parole. He arranged to meet with a high end escort at a serviced apartment complex. While there e shot and killed an employee of the apartments who is believed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. After holding the escort hostage he died in a shootout with the police that left three of them injured. During the hostage situation Channel 7 recived a phone call from someone claiming to be the suspect who claimed the attack was "...for IS (Islamic State)" and "This is for al-Qaeda". Khayre had been charged back in 2009 for a terror plot targeting the Holsworthy Army Barracks, but was acquitted. He had previously been convicted for a knife robbery that left one person stabbed. 

My Comment:

A note on the source of this attack. I don't know if news.com.au is a credible source or not but what was posted in this article is the same that I have seen in other Australian media. Unfortunately, the American and European media, which I have much more experience with, is not covering this case. The only one I could find initally was The Guardian, which I don't like for ideological reason, so I went with the local source. 

It seems as though this case is being memory holed pretty hard in the western media. I am guessing that Australia is remote enough that it's possible that people don't care about what happens there, but you would think an ISIS linked terror attack in a country that is a major US ally would get more press. To be fair there was a mass shooting in the United States today, but most of the headlines are either Trump bashing or updates on the London terror attack. This event should have been the lead news story today and it wasn't. There were a few stories but most of them were out of date and not updated with the latest information. 

Before all the details of this case were released I suspected that this attack was related to ISIS. The fact that the suspect, presumably, called into a news station and said this was for ISIS/al-Qaeda was a pretty big hint, but even before that there were some major clues. 

This attack follows the instructions released in the latest issue of ISIS's magazine, Rumiyah, which replaced the now defunct Dabiq magazine. In the issue ISIS recommended attacks just like this one where they would take hostages and fight it out with the cops. They even recommend that call their victims under false pretenses, as it seems was the case here. The fact that this case followed those instructions so precisely told me that it was likely this attack was related to Islamic extremism.  

There was no information about what kind of gun the suspect used or how he got it. The fact that a radical Muslim with an armed robbery conviction was able to get a gun in the massively gun controlled Australia does not reflect well on their gun laws. It just goes to show that even in a country that has draconian and, quite frankly, evil gun control laws, gun crimes will still happen if someone wants it bad enough. This guy did. 

The fact that the suspect targeted an escort service is significant.  Prostitution is legal in parts of Australia, but it is considered a major sin in Islam. Though Islam is fairly hypocritical on the issue, allowing sexual slavery and so called "temporary marriages", it is very clear that western style prostitution is not acceptable among Muslims. However, I have to note that I have no evidence that the female hostage was anything other than a legitimate escort, but the implication would be the same either way. This attack was a statement. Allow prostitution at your own risk. 

What is amazing to me is that the female hostage was able to survive. Normally, ISIS doesn't have a problem with killing woman so I am guessing that either Khayre was taken out before he could kill her or was too distracted by the police to follow through. Either way, the Australian police deserve credit for rescuing the hostage. 

I do have to wonder what the situation was with Khayre in terms of immigration status. He's of Somali decent, but I haven't been able to find out if he was a citizen or an immigrant. Though his status doesn't matter that much, it is interesting that I haven't been able to find that out. 

What is also interesting is that Khayre was someone that actually went on trial for a major terror plot that was acquitted. It seems as though they jury/judge in that case made a major mistake as it is very clear that he is an actual terrorist. The Australian police should also look into Khayre's time in prison for his armed robbery arrest and conviction. He may have been further radicalized in there and may have also built links to other terrorists as well. 

Finally, this attack ups the death toll in Ramadan. Though only a minor attack that left one dead and three wounded, it still counts as an ISIS inspired terror attack. It shows that supporters are listening and reading the propaganda that ISIS is putting out and that they are following through. Given the fact that this attack was at least partially successful, I expect more attacks like this in the future.