Australia is considering raising its terrorism threat level to the second highest alert, because of the threat posed by Islamic State (IS).  ASIO Director-General David Irvine is retiring at week’s end, but might decide to lift the level from “medium” to “high” – meaning that he thinks the chances of a terrorist attack had gone from “possible” to “likely”.

“I would say that at the moment, it is at a very elevated level of medium and I'm certainly contemplating very seriously the notion of lifting it higher,” Irvine said, “Because of the numbers of people that we are now having to be concerned about in Australia, because of the influence of Syria and Iraq on young Australians both in terms of going to those places to fight but also in terms of what they are doing here in Australia with a potential intent to attack.”

Irvine says about 60 Australians have gone off to fight for Islamic State and al Nusra Front in Iraq and Syria, and another 100 people are supporting these terrorist groups from within Australia.

This comes as US President Barack Obama is preparing to address the American people on Wednesday night about possible further military action in Iraq and Syria against the militants of Islamic State.  Polling suggests that two-thirds of the American people support air strikes against IS.

“The president has been specific about what the end game is. T he president believes that we need to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL.  That is the end game,” said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.