Australia: Home-grown terror plot

CANBERRA - The global reach of violent Islamic extremism and the power of jihadist ideology have been hammered home to Australia by the arrests yesterday of men allegedly plotting suicide attacks against military bases in Sydney and Victoria.

The group allegedly intended to rush the bases with automatic weapons and kill indiscriminately until they were themselves killed.

Federal Police Acting Commissioner Tony Negus said yesterday's early-morning raids across Melbourne's northern suburbs "disrupted an alleged terrorist act that could have claimed many lives".

One man, 25-year-old Nayes El Sayed, has been charged with committing an act in preparation for a terrorist act, police have been given more time to question another man, and three others have so far been detained.

The men are believed to be linked to the Somali-based al-Shabaab terror group that is waging a bloody war against the African nation's interim Government, and which has links to the international al Qaeda network.

Although primarily engaged in its national campaign, al-Shabaab regards itself as active in the global war against "enemies of Islam" and recruits and trains foreign fighters from countries including Australia, Britain and the United States.

Australian citizens are known to have trained in Somalia, one is believed to have been killed there, and the plot revealed after the mass raids across Melbourne's northern suburbs before dawn yesterday appears to have been fomented by men frustrated in their attempts to join al-Shabaab.

"It shows you what's happening in the shadows that we don't know about," Dr Leanne Piggott, of Sydney University's Centre for International Studies, said.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who was briefed about the impending raids on Sunday, said the existence of another alleged terror cell with plans to attack within Australia showed the nation continued to face an enduring threat from terrorism.

"The sobering element to emerge from today's development is the reminder to all Australians that the threat of terrorism is alive and well [which] requires continued vigilance on the part of our security authorities, and we propose to maintain that vigilance into the future," he said.

Counter-terrorism agencies have warned that Australia faces a growing risk of home-grown terrorism rising out of young men influenced by the ideology of global jihad and the teachings of local extremists.

Terror expert Professor Clive Williams of Macquarie University said: "It has become more difficult for people to get into Somalia, particularly if they are young people who fit the profile of joining al-Shabaab. That perhaps has encouraged people who can't get there to do something at home, which is what al Qaeda has said in the past."

So far 12 people have been convicted of terror-related crimes in Australia - including members of two cells planning major attacks in Sydney and Melbourne - and more than 10 others are before the courts.

Australia has outlawed 17 groups officially listed as terrorist organisations.

The list does not include al-Shabaab, which has been declared a terrorist group in the United States and Scandinavia.

The Australian newspaper - which learned of the impending raids known as Operation Neath last week and ran the story in later editions yesterday - said counter-terrorism agents had first learned of the plot in surveillance of an Australian-Lebanese man known for radical Islamic views.

They intercepted a phone call between this man and a Somalian later identified as the "facilitator" for Australian jihadists wanting to join al-Shabaab in Somalia, including two recently smuggled into the African country through Kenya.

When these plans were frustrated, about 18 men of Somali and Lebanese background, mostly labourers and taxi drivers, allegedly planned attacks within Australia in retaliation for the nation's military presence in Muslim countries.

Australia has a large force in Afghanistan, but last week withdrew its last troops from Iraq, ending an involvement that began with the US-led invasion in 2003.

Police said yesterday that the group planned suicide attacks on Holsworthy Army Barracks in southwestern Sydney, and unspecified bases in Victoria.

Federal police agent David Kinton told a court hearing yesterday that police evidence included intercepted phone calls and text messages between the suspects. The Age reported that one message referred to the Holsworthy base, saying: "I stalked around. It is easy to enter."

Holsworthy is the home base of the Army's elite parachute battalion, the 2nd Commando Regiment, and the Blackhawk helicopter-equipped 171st Aviation Squadron, all of which are integral elements of the nation's special forces.

Negus said the group rounded up yesterday allegedly planned to slaughter as many people at the base as possible before they were themselves killed. He said the group had been seeking a fatwa - a determination on Islamic law - to justify the action.

"Police will allege that the men were planning to carry out a suicide terrorist attack on a defence establishment within Australia involving an armed assault with automatic weapons," he said. "Details of the planning indicate the alleged offenders were prepared to complete a sustained attack on military personnel until they themselves were killed."

Victorian Police Chief Commissioner Simon Overton indicated that federal, Victorian and New South Wales police and Australian Secret Intelligence Organisation agents waited until the last moment to act.

The alleged links to al-Shabaab have alarmed security agencies, which have known for some time of extremism at the fringes of Australia's Somali community, including travel to Somalia by radicalised members for terror training.

A Somali community leader, Dr Herse Hilole, now an academic at Malaysia's International Islamic University also told ABC radio yesterday that he had warned Canberra two years ago that young Somali Muslims could be recruited for terror attacks within Australia.

Dr Sarah Phillips from the Centre for International Security Studies said she would be surprised if the al-Shabaab group had a sizeable presence in Australia, or were being funded directly from within Somalia. "You need to be quite careful about overstating their presence here in Australia," she told Sky News.

The extent of al-Shabaab's links to al Qaeda are not fully understood, although most analysts believe them to be tenuous and based largely on individual contacts. But the two organisations have publicly praised each other, and the alleged terror plans conform to statements committing al-Shabaab to a global jihad.

Piggot said there were two main categories of jihadi groups - those that had a very specific national focus and those operating under a global ideology - and it would be of great concern if al-Shabaab was in any way affiliated with the global movement.

Rudd said the alleged plot was not connected with the Jakarta bombings and that the nation's present medium-level terror alert status would not be raised. It would not affect Australia's "difficult, on-going and unpopular" commitment to Afghanistan.

- ADDITIONAL REPORTING: Agencies