Melbourne: Australian police arrested four men linked to a Somali group on Tuesday on suspicion of planning a guerrilla-style suicide attack on a military base, underlining that the country remains a prime target for Islamist groups.
The four were arrested after dawn raids on 19 properties across the southern city of Melbourne, after a seven-month investigation involving Australia's national security agency ASIO.
A fifth man, in custody on other matters, was also being questioned. The four men were aged between 22 and 26 and were all Australian citizens, from Somali and Lebanese backgrounds, police said.
One man was later charged with conspiring to plan or prepare a terrorist act. All were due in court later on Tuesday.
Officials said Australia's terrorism warning alert would remain at medium level, where it has been since 2003, but Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the arrests showed threats remained. "The sobering element to emerge from today's development is the reminder to all Australians that the threat of terrorism is alive and well," he said in Cairns.
While Australia has never suffered a peacetime attack on home soil, more than 90 Australians have been killed in bomb attacks in Indonesia since 2002.
Acting Australian Federal Police Commissioner Tony Negus told reporters that those arrested had been planning a suicide attack, using automatic weapons to storm a suburban Sydney military base and kill those inside. "The men's intention was to actually go into the army barracks and to kill as many soldiers as they could until they themselves were killed," he said.
"We believe the men were linked with al Shabaab in Somalia," he said, adding that police have not ruled out further arrests. Al Shabaab is a hardline militant Islamist youth group that is deeply involved in violence in war-torn Somalia. It has vowed to rule the majority Muslim nation by a hardline interpretation of Islamic law, and has dug up Sufi graves, forced women to wear veils, closed down movie halls and cut off limbs for theft. Analysts say al Shabaab, which figures on the United States' terrorism list, has recently had success recruiting from the Somali diaspora and other Muslim youths abroad.
AUSTRALIA "REMAINS A GOLD-MEDAL TARGET
Australia has gradually tightened anti-terrorism laws since the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
It has been an active participant in hostilities in Iraq and Afghanistan, where over 1,000 Australians are currently serving with foreign forces. Security analyst Carl Ungerer said the arrests proved that Australian security agencies remained vigilant against attacks, and that Australia remains a prime target for groups linked to al Qaeda, which is blamed for the September 11 attacks.
"The arrests this morning clearly show that Australia remains a gold-medal target for international terrorism," Ungerer, from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, told Reuters.
"What it suggests is we remain high on the list of those who are either al Qaeda or affiliated with al Qaeda, or have bought into its rhetoric of this Salafi jihadism."
Rudd said Tuesday's arrests were not linked to deadly bombings at two luxury hotels in Jakarta last month that killed three Australians. Police said they had worked with international agencies over the raids, but refused to say who tipped them off. Police had cordoned off a house in Melbourne's northern suburbs and set up a tent, and were seen carrying out boxes of evidence in the quiet suburban street.
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