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Australian police officers and forensic experts are seen at a house in the suburb of Glenroy in Melbourne, which was raided in connection to planned terror attacks - Source: Reuters -
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Australian police arrested four men linked to a Somali militant
group, accusing them of planning a suicide attack on an army base
and raising concerns al Qaeda-linked militants were seeking targets
outside Africa.
The four were arrested in dawn raids on 19 properties across the
southern city of Melbourne, after a seven-month investigation
involving three police forces and Australia's national security
agency ASIO.
Officials said Australia's terrorism warning alert would remain at
medium level, where it has been since 2003, but Prime Minister
Kevin Rudd said the arrests showed threats remained.
"The sobering element to emerge from today's development is the
reminder to all Australians that the threat of terrorism is alive
and well," he said in Cairns.
It is the latest high-profile terrorism case that Australian police
and intelligence agencies have uncovered.
Australia's biggest terrorism trial ended in February when Muslim
cleric Abdul Nacer Benbrika was jailed for 15 years for leading a
cell that had planned to bomb a 2005 football match in Melbourne.
Altogether, 12 people were jailed over the plot.
In the latest case, the four men arrested were aged between 22 and
26 and were all Australian citizens with Somali and Lebanese
backgrounds.
Police said they were linked to the al Shabaab militant
group.
One man, Nayaf El Sayed, 25, was officially charged with conspiring
to plan or prepare a terrorist act. Police were granted extra time
to question three others, Saney Aweys, Yacqub Khayre and Abdirahman
Ahmed.
Sayed did not enter a plea or apply for bail, and he refused to
stand for the magistrate before he was remanded in jail to
reapppear in court on October 26.
"He believes he should not stand for any man except God," his
counsel told the hearing.
A fifth man, in custody on other matters, was also being questioned
and police have not ruled out more arrests.
Prosecutors told the Melbourne Magistrate's Court they had evidence
some of the men had taken part in training in Somalia and at least
one had engaged in frontline fighting in Somalia.
They said police had evidence of phone conversations, text messages
and surveillance footage, including footage of one of the suspects
outside the Holsworthy army base in suburban Sydney.
The court heard the men planned to seek a fatwa, or religious
ruling, to support an attack on the Holsworthy army base.
North Africa militants
While Australia has never suffered a peacetime attack on home soil,
95 Australians have been killed in bomb attacks in Indonesia since
2002.
Al Shabaab is a hard-line militant Islamist youth group that is
deeply involved in violence in war-torn Somalia. It has vowed to
rule the majority Muslim nation by a hard-line interpretation of
Islamic law, and has dug up Sufi graves, forced women to wear
veils, closed down movie halls and cut off limbs for theft.
Analysts say al Shabaab, which is on the US State Department's
terrorism list, is affiliated with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda
network, and has recently had success recruiting from the Somali
diaspora and other Muslim youths abroad.
Strategic analyst Carl Ungerer said the Australian arrests point to
growing militant activity from North Africa, and proved Australia
was still a prime target for militants.
"The arrests this morning clearly show that Australia remains a
gold-medal target for international terrorism," Ungerer, from the
Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said.
"It is clearly the case, and security intelligence agencies have
believed for some time now, there is a real, increasing tempo of al
Qaeda activity across all of North Africa, not just the horn,"
Ungerer said.
"There is a growing concern that the next generation of
terrorism is going to be North African."
Acting Australian Federal Police Commissioner Tony Negus told
reporters those arrested had planned to storm a suburban Sydney
military base with automatic weapons and kill those inside.
"The men's intention was to actually go into the army barracks and
to kill as many soldiers as they could until they themselves were
killed," he said.
Police said they had worked with international agencies over the
raids, but declined to say who tipped them off.
Australia has gradually tightened anti-terrorism laws since the
September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and has more than
1,000 military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Under Australian anti-terror laws, authorities can detain a suspect
for a prolonged period of time without charge, with court approval,
while they investigate a case.
Rudd said the arrests were not linked to deadly bombings at two
luxury hotels in Jakarta last month that killed three
Australians.
