Suspected Islamic militants held in Oz anti-terror raids
Four Australian citizens of Somali and Lebanese extraction suspected of planning a suicide attack on a major army base in Sydney are arrested in Melbourne
4 August 2009
FOUR Australian citizens suspected of planning a suicide attack on a major army base in Sydney were arrested this morning.
The arrests followed anti-terror raids on 19 properties across the southern city of Melbourne, after a seven-month investigation involving three police forces and Australia’s national security agency, ASIO.
The suspects were all men aged between 22 and 26. All four had Somali and Lebanese backgrounds.
Police said the men were linked to the hardline militant Islamist youth group al-Shabaab, which is involved in violence in Somalia.
Officers said they had evidence of phone conversations, text messages and surveillance footage, including footage of one of the suspects outside the Holsworthy army base in Sydney.
Police said they also had evidence the men had been training in terror camps in Somalia, and that one had fought there.
Acting Australian Federal Police Commissioner Tony Negus added: "The men’s intention was to go into the barracks and kill as many soldiers as they could until they themselves were killed."
One man, Nayef El Sayed, 25, was officially charged with conspiring to plan or prepare a terrorist act. Police were granted extra time to question three others, Saney Aweys, Yacqub Khayre and Abdirahman Ahmed.
Sayed did not enter a plea or apply for bail, and he refused to stand for the magistrate before he was remanded in jail to reappear in court on 26 October.
Officials said Australia’s terrorism warning alert would remain at medium level.
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