SYDNEY, 9 November 2005 — Australian police yesterday arrested 17 people, including a Muslim cleric and a man they said wanted to become a suicide bomber, on charges of planning terrorist attacks as part of a “violent jihad in Australia.”

One of the arrested men was in critical condition in hospital after being shot by police when he opened fire during early morning raids in Sydney and Melbourne. Police said the man was walking near a mosque in the Sydney suburb of Green Valley mid-morning when officers who had him under surveillance ordered him to stop. A police spokesman said the man fired a number of shots at police, who returned fire and shot him in the neck. A bomb squad robot was called in to examine the contents of the man’s backpack and found it contained a second handgun, police said.

Police seized chemicals, firearms, computers, backpacks and travel documents in the raids.

The loose-knit group did not have a target, but it was trying to buy chemicals similar to those used in the London bombings in July, for a “catastrophic” attack, police said.

“I am satisfied that we have disrupted what I would regard as the final stages of a terrorist attack or the launch of a terrorist attack in Australia,” said New South Wales state Police Commissioner Ken Moroney.

During a court appearance, police said Muslim cleric Abu Bakr, who called Bin Laden a “great man” who defends Muslims fighting US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, was the leader of the group. He was remanded in custody until Jan. 31.

The Melbourne court was told the men had engaged in military-like training in rural Australia and that one man had expressed a desire to become a “martyr” in Australia.

Police said they had 240 hours of telephone intercepts and recordings of the group. Police detective Chris Murray told the court that one man had “asked permission to become a martyr in Australia, he wanted to die here.”

Murray said the man had been told to wait, but was impatient, adding he wanted to “go in a similar way to a suicide bomber.”

Victorian state Police Commissioner Christine Nixon told reporters the group did not have a target and specifically ruled out the Commonwealth Games, which are due to be held in Melbourne in March and opened by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II.