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| Down Under |
| Aussie cells plotted devastating attack |
| 2005-11-09 |
| Chilling details of an alleged plot by Islamist radicals to carry out a "catastrophic" terrorist attack in Australia emerged yesterday. Police arrested 17 suspects during dawn raids involving 450 heavily armed policemen backed by helicopters. Authorities alleged that the suspects were members of a terrorist cell committed to "violent jihad" on Australian soil. Among those detained was a trainee electrician allegedly impatient to carry out a suicide bombing in retaliation for Canberra's support for the war in Iraq. Police refused to reveal the group's alleged targets other than to rule out the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in March, which will be opened by the Queen. Terrorism suspects have previously been caught carrying out surveillance on the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge and the Melbourne stock exchange. Eight men were arrested in Sydney and nine in Melbourne in the biggest counter-terrorism operation in Australia's history, the culmination of 16 months of surveillance. One of the Sydney suspects was shot in the neck and critically injured after he fired at police who ordered him to stop as he walked towards a mosque. "The police forces of this country might just have prevented a catastrophic act of terrorism," the New South Wales police minister, Carl Scully, said. Ken Moroney, the head of the state's police force, said: "I'm satisfied that we have disrupted what I would regard as the final stages of a large-scale terrorist attack." The nine members of the alleged Melbourne terror cell appeared in court, where prosecutors said they had carried out military training in the bush and had stockpiled chemicals capable of making bombs. Police disclosed that they had 240 hours of secretly taped recordings in which the suspects allegedly discussed jihad and martyrdom. The group's alleged leader, Abdul Nacer Benbrika, 45, a Muslim preacher, was charged with directing the activities of a terrorist organisation and being a member of a terrorist organisation. The remaining eight, aged between 21 and 31, were charged with being members of a terrorist organisation. The eight Sydney suspects were charged with preparing to manufacture explosives in preparation for a terrorist act. The arrested men had been plotting to "kill innocent women and children," Richard Maidment, QC, prosecuting, told Melbourne magistrates' court. He said intense rivalry between the two groups meant the Melbourne cell were keen to outdo their counterparts in Sydney by fast-tracking plans for an attack. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |