MOSCOW, September 18 (RIA Novosti) – Australian police detained 15 people Thursday as part of a counterterrorism operation, which was launched after a terror warning was raised in the country in response to the domestic threat posed by supporters of the Islamic State (IS) militant group, the Associated Press reported.

“Police believe that this group that we have executed this operation on today had the intention and had started to carry out planning to commit violent acts here in Australia,” Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Andrew Colvin said as quoted by the Associated Press Wednesday.

“Those violent acts particularly related to random acts against members of the public. So what we saw today and the operation that continues was very much about police disrupting the potential for violence against the Australian community at the earliest possible opportunity,” Colvin added.

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