TRANSCRIPT:
Ever since the stabbing of a bishop in south-western Sydney in mid April, counter-terrorism police have been monitoring members of an extremist group the alleged attacker was involved in.
On Wednesday, there were raids across Sydney where seven youths, aged between 15 and 17, were arrested.
David Hudson is the New South Wales Police Deputy Commissioner.
He says the counter-terrorism squad involved in Wednesday's arrests is made up of state and federal police as well as officials from ASIO and the NSW Crime Commission.
"Involving more than 400 police of the AFP and New South Wales police officers. Thirteen search warrants have been executed across south-western Sydney, the execution of those warrants is continuing."
A further five people are believed to be assisting police with their inquiries.
In a statement, New South Wales Police have said their Joint Counter Terrorism Team executed warrants but that there is no current threat to public safety and no connection to Anzac Day commemorations.
The Deputy Commissioner has defended the raids, calling them absolutely necessary.
"We will allege that these individuals adhere to a religiously motivated violent extremist ideology. These investigations have been progressing since the incident... It was considered, the subject of our attention, posed an unacceptable risk and threat to the people of New South Wales and our current purely investigative strategies could not adequately ensure public safety. As a result, we determined that we needed to escalate our activities, and that overt action was required."
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw was giving a National Press Club address when news of the raids broke.
He's described it as a "major operation".
"We do have to make - unfortunately - lawful interventions to prevent any further planning or attack on our community."
AFP Deputy Commissioner Krissy Barrett has assured the public that the operation targeted the youths based on their alleged criminality, not their background.
"Now I know that some of this will be confusing and confronting for some Australians and parts of our community. Senior members of the A-F-P and our community liaison teams have today held discussions with faith communities who we value and respect. Our relationships are very important and we never take them for granted. I want to be very clear, we target criminality, not countries. We target radicalisation, not religion."
