THE two Australian brothers arrested in Yemen as suspected al-Qaeda terrorists were under observation over a suicide bomb plot to blow up Sydney's Kings Cross railway station. The Daily Telegraph can reveal that a terrorist cell was last year planning a London-style attack on peak-hour commuters at the busy underground station. The plot was three months in the planning before it was foiled last year by ASIO and NSW and Federal counter-terrorism police. Authorities believed the men were linked to plotters stockpiling a range of chemicals including acetone, known as "Mother of Satan", an explosive precursor used in the London bombings. Mohammed and Abdullah Ayub - arrested in Yemen accused of being members of an al-Qaeda cell and gun-running - were being watched because their father is Abdul Rahim Ayub, the former head of Jemaah Islamiah in Australia. Their mother, Australian-born Rabiah Hutchison, is a leader of a radical clique of Muslim wives, including those married to some of the men arrested over the Kings Cross plot. Ms Hutchison and her Islamic wives club regularly travel for "holidays" and religious instruction to Yemen, which is a hotbed of radical Islam.
Authorities have only recently pieced together the web linking the Ayub brothers and their family to the plotters. The Ayubs were stopped at Sydney airport and spoken to by ASIO agents when they left for Yemen.