PM says IS has ‘global terrorism ambitions’

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has delivered a dire warning about the global reach of the Islamic State group to delegates at a violent extremism summit in Sydney.

 

Mr Abbott told delegates at the first day of the regional summit that if it could, IS, or Daesh, would come for every person and government with one message: ‘Submit or die’.

 

‘This is terrorism with global ambitions.’

 

He said IS holds sway over an area as large as Italy in eastern Syria and northern and western Iraq, while its affiliates control parts of Libya and Nigeria.

 

The group is also active on the Horn of Africa and parts of the Arabian Peninsula and it has ambitions to establish a far province in Southeast Asia, he said.

 

‘The tentacles of the death cult have extended even here as we discovered with the Martin Place siege last December,’ Mr Abbott said.

 

He said in the past year IS and its imitators carried out attacks in Sydney and in Melbourne, as well as in France, Belgium, Canada, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Egypt, Nigeria, Jordan, Denmark, Kenya and the United States.

 

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