Questions And Mourning After Sydney Cafe Siege

Published December 16, 2014 at 12:40 PM CST

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A woman kneels down as she lays flowers in a makeshift memorial near the site where a gunman held hostages for 16 hours at a popular Sydney cafe, Australia, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014.(Steve Christo/AP)

Australians are mourning the two hostages killed in a 16-hour siege at a cafe, and asking how the attack happened.

Australia recently passed tough laws against terrorism. The attack was carried out by a man with a long history of run-ins with police. The government had information that the Islamic State sought to recruit individuals to carry out attacks in the country.

Peter Lentini, director of the Global Terrorism Research Center at Australia’s Monash University joined Here & Now‘s Robin Young to describe the scene in Sydney.

Guest

Peter Lentini, director of the Global Terrorism Research Center at Monash University. He is also the author of “Neojihadism: Towards a New Understanding of Terrorism and Extremism?“