Police foil 'suicide plot' to storm Australian Army base
August 4, 2009
timesonline.co.uk
Several Australian men have been arrested in a series of counter-terrorism raids across Melbourne after police uncovered a plot by Islamic extremists linked to al-Qaeda to mount a suicide attack on an Army base.
Four men were under arrest this morning and several others were assisting police with inquiries after 400 police officers and members of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) swooped on 19 properties shortly before dawn.
Authorities believe the group, of Somalian and Lebanese background, was at an advanced stage of preparing to storm an Army barracks in retaliation for Australia’s military involvement in Muslim countries. Members of the group had been observed carrying out surveillance on Holsworthy Barracks in Western Sydney and on other Army bases in Victoria.
Electronic surveillance also picked up discussions about how to obtain weapons to carry out what would have been the worst terror attack on Australian soil.
“The men’s intention was to get into the army barracks and kill as many as they could,” Tony Negus, Australian Federal Police acting commissioner said. They were “planning to carry out a suicide terror attack . . . a sustained attack on military personnel until they themselves were killed,” he said.
"This operation has disrupted an alleged terrorist attack that could have claimed many lives," he said.
Simon Overland, Victoria Police Commissioner, said that police launched the raids after it “got to a point where we decided it was appropriate to act”.
It is understood the cell is linked to the Somali-based terror organisation al-Shabaab, a militant group affiliated to al-Qaeda. Members of the group recently travelled to Somalia to undergo training with the organisation, according to The Australian newspaper.
Police launched the terror investigation, dubbed Operation Neath, after listening in to a phone call between an Australian-Lebanese man they had been monitoring, and a Somali living in Melbourne, in which the Lebanese asked for help to travel to Somalia to fight with al-Shabaab, The Australian reported. The Lebanese man’s calls had been monitored after he came to the attention of the authorities for espousing extremist views at his local mosque in Melbourne.
Australia’s security agencies had suspected for some years that there were links between a minority of the couuntry’s 16,000-strong Somali community and militants in their homeland. The links had never been proven and an AFP investigation into extremist activities within the community in 2007 failed to establish any wrongdoing.
Operation Neath, a seven-month long investigation into the hardline group, believed to consist of taxi drivers and labourers, uncovered the men’s plans to launch a suicide attack in Australia.
The plan was for the group, armed with automatic weapons, to storm the entrance to an army base. They were to kill as many soldiers as they could before being killed. None of them would surrender, the newspaper reported.
The men arrested are Australian citizens ranging in age from 22 to 26, Victoria state police said. Several others were being questioned Tuesday.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said today the terror plot would not persuade him to pull his country's forces out of Afghanistan .
Mr Rudd admitted the Afghan operation, which claimed its 11th Australian life last month, was "unpopular" but said it was necessary to cut off militant training opportunities.
"This is a difficult and ongoing fight in Afghanistan, I accept that," Rudd told journalists. "But if we're to deal with the threat of terrorism at its various levels we must be dealing with where terrorists are trained."
Operation Neath is the second largest terror investigation in Australia. In February, Abdul Nacer Benbrika, a fanatical cleric who wanted to wage jihad by launching “`terrible acts of violence”, was sentenced to at least 12 years in jail after becoming the first person in Australia to be convicted of leading a terrorist organisation. Several Australian men have been arrested in a series of counter-terrorism raids across Melbourne after police uncovered a plot by Islamic extremists linked to al-Qaeda to mount a suicide attack on an Army base.
Four men were under arrest this morning and several others were assisting police with inquiries after 400 police officers and members of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) swooped on 19 properties shortly before dawn.
Authorities believe the group, of Somalian and Lebanese background, was at an advanced stage of preparing to storm an Army barracks in retaliation for Australia’s military involvement in Muslim countries. Members of the group had been observed carrying out surveillance on Holsworthy Barracks in Western Sydney and on other Army bases in Victoria.
Electronic surveillance also picked up discussions about how to obtain weapons to carry out what would have been the worst terror attack on Australian soil.
“The men’s intention was to get into the army barracks and kill as many as they could,” Tony Negus, Australian Federal Police acting commissioner said. They were “planning to carry out a suicide terror attack . . . a sustained attack on military personnel until they themselves were killed,” he added.
Simon Overland, Victoria Police Commissioner, said that police launched the raids after it “got to a point where we decided it was appropriate to act”.
It is understood the cell is linked to the Somali-based terror organisation al-Shabaab, a militant group affiliated to al-Qaeda. Members of the group recently travelled to Somalia to undergo training with the organisation, according to The Australian newspaper.
Police launched the terror investigation, dubbed Operation Neath, after listening in to a phone call between an Australian-Lebanese man they had been monitoring, and a Somali living in Melbourne, in which the Lebanese asked for help to travel to Somalia to fight with al-Shabaab, The Australian reported. The Lebanese man’s calls had been monitored after he came to the attention of the authorities for espousing extremist views at his local mosque in Melbourne.
Australia’s security agencies had suspected for some years that there were links between a minority of the couuntry’s 16,000-strong Somali community and militants in their homeland. The links had never been proven and an AFP investigation into extremist activities within the community in 2007 failed to establish any wrongdoing.
Operation Neath, a three-month investigation into the hardline group, believed to be taxi drivers and labourers, uncovered the men’s plans to launch a suicide attack in Australia.
The plan was for the group, armed with automatic weapons, to storm the entrance to an army base. They were to kill as many soldiers as they could before being killed. None of them would surrender, the newspaper reported.
The four arrested men, aged from 22 to 26, will appear in court later today.
Operation Neath is th second largest terror investigation in Australia. In February, Abdul Nacer Benbrika, a fanatical cleric who wanted to wage jihad by launching “`terrible acts of violence”, was sentenced to at least 12 years in jail after becoming the first person in Australia to be convicted of leading a terrorist organisation |
