One of Australia's most senior counter-terrorism officers has warned the Islamic State group will be a threat for years to come, even after its defeat in Syria and Iraq.
Overnight, US-backed Syrian forces re-captured the city of Raqqa which has long served as the de facto capital of the Islamic State group.
New South Wales Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Murdoch is the head of counter-terrorism and said the group would continue to wage war on the West.
"They will reorganise, they will rebrand and they will reappear," he said.
"These people who are over there now will leave Iraq and Syria, they will go somewhere else, they are not going to forget their ideology or give up on it.
"The reality is that the threat is just going to move somewhere else ... we need to be prepared for this to continue for the foreseeable future."
Police prepare for attack Down Under
The threat of another Islamic State-inspired attack reared its head last night as two armed offenders shot and stabbed commuters at Sydney's Central Station in a mock attack.
It was part of an exercise to train frontline police to respond to a so-called "active armed offender" incident.
Hostages were forced to stand with their hands on the window holding up an Islamic State flag.
The two offenders were depicted as Islamic State-inspired militants but Mr Murdoch said the training exercise was not aimed at perpetuating stereotypes.
"We're not trying to stereotype anyone in the community — that is just reality," he said.
"The profile for terrorism is underpinned by an adherence to extremist Islamic ideology."
But Western Sydney academic and Islamophobia expert Professor Linda Briskman said the portrayal of the two offenders as Islamic could have unintended consequences.
"There's the potential to fuel Islamophobia," she said.
"When the public sees this video clip they may feel fearful and that fear does generate anti-Muslim sentiment."
Codenamed Exercise Pantograph, the exercise involved more than 160 personnel from NSW Police, Transport for NSW, Fire & Rescue NSW and Ambulance NSW.
