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Australian police - Source: Reuters -
Related
Three men alleged to have plotted a
suicide shoot-out at an Australian army
base
have been charged and will appear in
court.
About
400 police
swooped on 19 properties in
Melbourne's north, the inner city and south-western Victoria about
4.30am (AEST) on Tuesday.
One man, Nayef El Sayed, 25, of Glenroy, appeared in the Melbourne
Magistrates' Court the same day, charged with conspiring to do acts
in preparation for an armed attack on the army base at Holsworthy,
in Sydney's west.
Sayed did not apply for bail and was
remanded in custody
to reappear in court in
late October.
Three other men - Saney Edow Aweyz, Abdirahman Ahmed and Yacqub
Khayre - also appeared in court but were not charged until
Wednesday morning with the same offence as Sayed.
They are expected to face court on Wednesday, along with a fifth
man who is already in custody and expected to be charged later on
Wednesday.
The government was very mindful not to have compromised the
counter-terrorism operation in Victoria, Rudd said.
About 400 police swooped on 19 properties in Melbourne's north, the
inner city and south-western Victoria in pre-dawn raids, resulting
in the arrest of four men.
They have been charged over an alleged suicide plot on the
Holsworthy's army base in Sydney.
A fifth man, who was already in custody, is expected to be charged
later on Wednesday.
Rudd said
the government based all its
decisions about the listing of terrorist organisations on the
advice of security and intelligence agencies, mindful of any
security operation ongoing at the time.
"We will take that advice and act on it appropriately."
The US National Counterterrorism Centre says al-Shabaab is the
militant wing of the Somalia Islamic Courts Council that took over
most of southern Somalia in the second half of 2006.
It reportedly has close links with al-Qaeda leaders, including
Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, an architect of the 1998 attacks on the US
embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in which 223 people died.
This is also the same group that has been making serious money
through piracy for at least the past 12 months.
