Seven people have been arrested in Germany on suspicion of founding a terrorist organisation with the aim of carrying out high-profile attacks similar to the ISIS, prosecutors said.
The Turkmen, Tajik and Kyrgyz nationals arrested in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia had known each other for a long time and entered the country from Ukraine shortly after the war began in 2022, said prosecutors.
They formed a terrorist organisation in June 2022 and had been considering targets in Germany and trying to procure weapons, but at the time of arrest did not have concrete plans for an attack, according to a statement from prosecutors.
Except for the Kyrgyz national, the suspects arrested in Germany had also been collecting money for the IS since April 2022 and repeatedly transferred it to the group abroad.
Dutch authorities on Thursday arrested two additional suspects connected to the group, a man from Tajikistan and his Kyrgyz wife, who had resided in the Netherlands since 2022.
The man is suspected of being an IS member and receiving the order to plot an attack, although plans were not yet concrete, Dutch prosecutors said in a separate statement.
There is no evidence indicating that the two suspects involved in the Bondi Beach attack received any form of military training while in the Philippines, the country's National Security Adviser said on Wednesday.
At least 12 people were killed and three others abducted when gunmen attacked a mining site in Atoso village in Nigeria's restive Plateau state, a local group leader said on Wednesday.
Russia launched a "massive" drone attack on Ukraine's central Cherkasy region, injuring six people and triggering a blackout in part of Cherkasy city, the local governor said on Thursday.
The United Nations and aid groups have warned on Wednesday that humanitarian operations in the Palestinian territories, particularly Gaza, were at risk of collapse if Israel does not lift impediments that include a "vague, arbitrary, and highly politicised" registration process.