MELBOURNE, Australia August 4 Sapa-AP

Police in Australia foiled a terrorist plot for commando-style
suicide attacks on at least one army base, arresting four men
Tuesday with suspected links to a Somali Islamist group, senior
officers said.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the plot was a "sober reminder"
that Australia is still under threat from extremist groups enraged
that the country sent troops to join the U.S.-led military
campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Some 400 officers from state and national security services took
part in 19 pre-dawn raids on properties in Melbourne, Australia's
second largest city, police said. Four men, all Australian citizens
of Somali or Lebanese descent and aged between 22 and 26, were
arrested, and several others were being questioned Tuesday, police
said.

Australian Federal Police Acting Commissioner Tony Negus said
the raids followed a seven-month surveillance operation of a group
of people with alleged ties to al-Shabaab, an al-Qaida-linked
Somali extremist organization that has been fighting to overthrow
Somalia's transitional government.

"Police will allege that the men were planning to carry out a
suicide terrorist attack on a defense establishment within
Australia involving an armed assault with automatic weapons," Negus
told reporters. "Details of the planning indicated the alleged
offenders were prepared to inflict a sustained attack on military
personnel until they themselves were killed."

Holsworthy Barracks on the outskirts of Sydney was one of the
group's potential targets, and surveillance had been carried out at
other bases, he said, declining to identify them.

Negus said the investigation also found that some Australian
citizens had traveled to Somalia "to participate in hostilities"
there, and that the group was seeking a fatwa, or Islamic religious
ruling, approving their plans for the Australian attack. Negus did
not say whose approval was being sought.

"This operation has disrupted an alleged terrorist attack that
could have claimed many lives," he said.

Police announced later that one of the suspects had been
formally charged with conspiring to prepare a terrorist act, a
charge that carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. Rudd
said other charges were likely to follow.

"As the Australian government has said consistently, there is an
enduring threat from terrorism at home here in Australia as well as
overseas," Rudd told reporters in the northern city of Cairns.

"This is a sober reminder that the threat of terrorism to Australia
continues."

He said he had been advised that "events today do not at this
time warrant any change to our national counterterrorism level,
which remains at medium" - the same security warning rating that
has been in place in Australia since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks in the United States.

Police sealed off several houses in Melbourne after the raids
and were conducting intensive searches. Forensic officers in
protective suits collected samples and searched at least one car
parked in a driveway, while uniformed officers interviewed
neighbors.

Terrorist violence is extremely rare in Australia - a 1978
bombing near the Hilton Hotel that killed two is the best-known
incident - and no attacks have been carried out on Australian soil
since the Sept. 11 attacks in the U.S. raised security threat
levels worldwide.

But dozens of Australians have died in terrorist attacks
overseas, mostly in Indonesia including the 2002 bombings in Bali
that targeted nightclubs frequented by Australians and other
foreigners.

The Somali-linked plot Tuesday is the second major coordinated
attack plan exposed in Australia in recent years. Seven men were
imprisoned in the past year for involvement in a nascent plot to
target thousands of spectators in an attack major sporting events
in Australia.

Negus said the Somali-linked plot, if it had been carried out,
could have been the most serious terrorist attack on Australian
soil.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, Australia introduced tough new
counterterrorism laws that grant police and security agencies
strong surveillance and detention powers, and stiffened prison
sentences for convicted terrorists. Australia does not have the
death penalty.

Al-Shabaab, which conducts frequent attacks in Somalia, is
seeking to overthrow the Horn of Africa nation's Western-backed
government and establish an Islamic state. The group has claimed
responsibility for several high-profile bombings and shootings in
the Somali capital of Mogadishu, targeting Ethiopian troops and
Somali government officials. It has also killed journalists and
international aid workers.

The U.S. State Department's annual terrorism report in April
said al-Shabaab was providing a safe haven to al-Qaida "elements"
wanted for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and
Tanzania. The two groups have long been suspected of working
together, but they have not announced a formal alliance. Al-Qaida
has operations in North Africa, Yemen and Iraq.

---
Associated Press writers Kristen Gelineau and Rohan Sullivan in
Sydney contributed to this report.



Source : Sapa-AP /pc
Date : 04 Aug 2009 06:36 OrigID : LC470737