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Seven would-be Australian terrorists stopped from traveling to Middle East

Xinhua, August 20, 2015 Adjust font size:

Seven young would-be Australian terrorists have been prevented from traveling to the Islamic State (IS) conflict zone in the Middle East, Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Thursday.

Sydney's Daily Telegraph reported on Wednesday that a group of five young men were detected and stopped at Sydney Airport in a single incident on Aug. 12.

"We have stopped at the airport seven young Australians who were planning to travel to the Middle East, it seems, to join terrorist groups over there," Abbott confirmed to the Australian Broadcast Corporation (ABC) on Thursday.

The group of five was "red-flagged" at an immigration checkpoint, and promptly intercepted by counterterrorism units before they boarded their connecting flight to Malaysia.

Last year, the Australian government enhanced its powers to suspend passports of those suspected of traveling to conflict "hot spots" such as Syria and Iraq.

As well as the group stopped last week, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said multiple other Australians, reported to be two by the ABC, had also been intercepted at Australian airports recently.

"That follows a number of people who have been off-loaded by the counterterrorism unit officers, in particular in Sydney and Melbourne, over a period of time," Dutton said.

Both Abbott and Dutton would not provide further details of the other two individuals intercepted.

"Obviously, particularly where investigations are ongoing, we are not going to provide a running commentary in relation to that, " Dutton said.

Abbott said the case highlighted how IS continued to actively recruit impressionable young Australians.

"This indicates the continuing allure of this death cult," Abbott said.

"It shows the importance of the most vigorous action, at home and abroad, to disrupt, to degrade, to destroy this menace to the freedom and the security of the world."

The Daily Telegraph reported 39 Australian jihadists had been killed to date fighting in the Middle East, both for and against IS. Endi