CANBERRA - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says the arrest of four people suspected of plotting a terrorist attack in Australia is a sober reminder that the threat of terrorism remains.
The four people arrested, all Australian citizens, were allegedly planning a suicide mission using semi-automatic weapons on an Australian military
base.
Police are presently interviewing a 26-year-old Carlton man, a 25-year-old Preston man, a 25-year-old man from Glenroy and a 22-year-old man from Meadow Heights.
"There is an enduring threat from terrorism at home here in Australia as well as overseas," Mr Rudd told reporters in Cairns.
Mr Rudd said there was no need for the national counter terrorism level to change from medium as it had been since the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.
He said he wanted to reassure all Australians that the nation's law enforcement and intelligence agencies were working hard to combat terrorism.
"(They) should be confident about Australia's strong and coordinated efforts to combat terrorism, but these efforts will continue just as Australians should remain mindful of the fact that the threat of terrorism continues."
Police say they have foiled a mission by Islamic terrorists to launch a suicide shoot-out on a military base in what they say would have been the worst-ever terrorist attack on Australian soil.
They pinpointed an Australian terrorist cell supporting and directly involved in insurgency activity in the African country of Somalia.
In seven months of surveillance and a series of raids early today, codenamed operation Neath, about 400 officers from the Australian Federal Police, Victoria Police and NSW Police made four arrests.
Mr Rudd rejected suggestions the planned attack meant Australian troops should be pulled out of Afghanistan.
"The threat of terrorism is alive and well and this requires continued vigilance," he said.
Mr Rudd praised the work of the combined security agencies from spy agency ASIO through to the Victorian police.
"The agencies have co-operated well."
Mr Rudd said normal security processes would apply to the Pacific Islands Forum which Australia is hosting in Cairns this week.
But security arrangements for the forum and any other planned national or international event were all subject to continuing review, he said.
- AAP
