ISIS Beheading Plot To ‘Take Member Of Public’ Foiled By Police, 15 Arrested

A new ISIS beheading plot has sought to “take a member of the public” and decapitate them on video.

Thankfully, police in the Australian cities of Sydney and Brisbane were able to prevent this from happening, but the fact the so-called “Islamic State” has moved terror attack plots outside the Middle East demonstrates just how real the ISIS threat is becoming.

According to Fox News, Australian counter-terrorism officers arrested 15 people Thursday “in a series of suburban raids after receiving intelligence that the Islamic State movement was planning public beheadings.”

The Associated Press noted that “about 800 federal and state police officers” were used in the “Operation Appleby” raids, which took place across “more than a dozen properties across 12 Sydney suburbs.” Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Andrew Colvin told the wire service that this was the largest police operation in Australian history, and that separate raids in the cities of Brisbane and Logan were conducted as well.

Had the ISIS beheading plots not been stopped, the Australian Broadcast Corporation notes, they would have involved randomly kidnapping members of the public from off the street.

From there, they would behead the person on camera and release the videos through the ISIS (ISIL) propaganda mill in the Middle East.

A 33-year-old man from Sydney, Mohammad Ali Baryalei, is said to be the mastermind of the failed ISIS beheading effort. A 22-year-old man named Omarjan Azari was also arrested along with several others.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott said he was briefed on the ISIS beheading plot Wednesday night.

“That’s the intelligence we received,” he said. “The exhortations — quite direct exhortations — were coming from an Australian who is apparently quite senior in ISIL to networks of support back in Australia to conduct demonstration killings here in this country.”

The attacks were said to be inspired by the case of Lee Rigby, a British soldier attacked and murdered by two Muslim converts from Nigeria. That attack occurred near the Royal Artillery Barracks in London in May 2013.

Various media outlets in Australia are reporting that the first blitz attacks on members of the public were to begin in “mere days” or less than a week.

What do you think in light of these latest developments, readers?

Is America facing a similar threat to this latest ISIS beheading plot? Do you think members of the group are already here? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below.