MELBOURNE: A handful of extremists with ties to an Al-Qaeda-linked group in Somalia planned to storm one of Australia’s largest military bases and launch a fight to the death with troops, police said Tuesday.
Police revealed details of the alleged plot after arresting four suspects — Australian citizens aged between 22 and 26 with Somali and Lebanese origins — in pre-dawn raids Tuesday on 19 houses in the southern city of Melbourne, the culmination of a seven-month intelligence operation.
A fifth man already in custody on an unrelated assault charge was also being questioned about the plot, police said.
“Potentially this would have been, if it had been able to be carried out, the most serious terrorist attack on Australian soil,” acting Australian Federal Police chief Tony Negus told reporters.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the plot underscored that Australia is still under threat from extremist groups at home and abroad. Only one of the four suspects, Nayef El-Sayad, was charged and he appeared briefly in court on a count of conspiring with four others to plan a terrorist attack. He did not enter a plea or seek bail. He faces life in prison if convicted.
Police allege the cell’s plan was to send a team of gunmen with automatic rifles on a suicide attack against Holsworthy Barracks, an army base on the outskirts of Australia’s largest city, Sydney, that houses commandos trained in counterterrorism, a Black Hawk helicopter squadron and thousands of regular troops.
“Details of the planning indicated the alleged offenders were prepared to inflict a sustained attack on military personnel until they themselves were killed,” Negus said.
“I stalked around. It is easy to enter” the Holsworthy barracks, one of the suspects allegedly said to another in an intercepted text message, The Age newspaper reported, citing police agent David Kinton. Police said the men were linked to the Somali Al-Shabab organization and trying to find a senior preacher who would endorse the operation so they could become martyrs.
