Australian Counter-Terror Police Say They Foiled Sydney Attack Plot

Reuters
By Reuters
July 2, 2019Australia
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Australian Counter-Terror Police Say They Foiled Sydney Attack Plot
The Australian Federal Police logo is seen in Canberra, Australia, on June 6, 2019. (Getty Images)

SYDNEY—Australian counter-terror police said they arrested three men in raids across Sydney on Tuesday, foiling a plot inspired by Islamic extremist group ISIS for attacks targeting a range of public buildings and embassies.

Australia has been on heightened alert for attacks by home-grown radicals since 2014 and authorities say they have thwarted 16 major plots since.

Two of the arrested men, aged 20 and 23, are charged with being members of ISIS, a crime under Australian laws, with the younger man accused of plotting the Sydney attack, which police said was in the early stages of planning.

“We will say that they had a number of targets, including police stations, defense establishments, embassies and councils, courts and churches,” Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Ian McCartney told reporters in Sydney.

“There are still those people within the community who wish to do us harm,” he said. “I want to say they don’t represent the Islamic faith. Their actions are criminal and they represent hatred and terror.”

Police made the arrests because they had compiled sufficient evidence for charges, McCarthy said, but offered few details.

A third man, aged 30, is charged with welfare fraud.

The police did not name those charged, who are expected to appear in court later in the day or on Wednesday. They were charged in Sydney’s Bankstown Police Station.

The so-called ISIS caliphate was established in 2014 and although it has been driven in the past year from all territory it once held in Syria and Iraq, authorities say it remains a threat, as an underground movement.

McCarthy said the man charged with plotting had been tracked by Australian authorities since mid-2018, when he drew their attention by traveling to Lebanon.

The Daily Telegraph reported that the 20-year-old had previously been detained by Australian authorities last year when he was stopped at Sydney Airport on his way to Lebanon, questioned and has his phone searched, although police found no incriminating evidence at the time. After two months in Lebanon, the man was arrested and jailed after he was accused of planning to travel to Syria to join ISIS.

But he was eventually released and re-entered Australia where police have been monitoring him for the past 12 months.

He now faces life imprisonment, if convicted of preparing for a terrorist act and preparing to enter a foreign country for the purpose of engaging in hostile activities. The others face sentences as long as 10 years.

The men knew each other on social media, police added. In addition to the Sydney plot, the 20-year-old planned to travel to Afghanistan to fight there for ISIS, and the 23-year-old was prominent among extremists online globally.

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