MELBOURNE — Today (Aug. 4th, 2009) Four men were arrested for planning a comando raid on a military base here.
Authorities Stopped Suicide Mission Against Army Base
Some say, it would have been the "most serious attack on Australian soil".
"The mission was disrupted in time to stop a terrorist attack that could have killed many"...
...said Fedearl police commissioner, Tony Negus, in a press conference here in Melbourne.
"Details of the planning indicated the alleged offenders were prepared to inflict a sustained attack on military personnel until they themselves were killed."
About 400 policemen participated in pre-dawn raids on 19 properties across Melbourne, detaining four Australians of Somali and Lebanese backgrounds.
The four men, aged between 22 and 26, are accused of planning to use semi-automatic weapons in staging an attack against Sydney's Holsworthy Barracks, home to thousands of troops including a major anti-extremism unit.
"The men's intention was to go into these army barracks and to kill as many people as possible," Negus said.
Of the arrestees, Nayef El Sayed, a 25-year-old from northern Melbourne, has been charged with conspiring to plan or prepare a terrorist attack.
The three others were still being questioned along with a fifth who was already being held on an unrelated matter.
"This would have been, if it had been able to be carried out, the most serious attack on Australian soil," Negus said.
Australia has never been hit by terror attacks on its own soil.
But it has lost lives in attacks abroad, including 92 on Indonesia's resort island of Bali in 2002 and 2005 and three in last month's Jakarta hotel blasts.
Somali Link
Negus said the group had links with Somalia's militant Shebab group.
Officials said at least one of the four men had traveled to Somalia to participate in the fighting there.
Shebab, designated a terror group by Washington, is battling the elected government in Somalia and African peacekeepers.
The group reportedly has within its ranks foreign fighters and is accused of links to Al-Qaeda.
Carl Ungerer, a security analyst from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, says Australia remains a target for groups linked to al-Qaeda.
"The arrests this morning clearly show that Australia remains a gold-medal target for international terrorism," Ungerer told Reuters.
"What it suggests is we remain high on the list of those who are either al Qaeda or affiliated with al Qaeda, or have bought into its rhetoric of this Salafi jihadism."
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the arrests were a reminder of the threat of terrorism. "The sobering element of today's development is the reminder to all Australians that the threat of terrorism is alive and well, and this requires continued vigilance on the part of our security authorities."
Shane Kent, a convert from here in Australia, confessed to plotting a mission to kill thousands of people by attacking a major sports event in Melbourne.
