MELBOURNE : Australian police said on Tuesday they had arrested four people after foiling a Somali-linked suicide plot to storm a military base in what would have been the country's worst extremist attack.
About 400 police swooped on homes around Melbourne, netting four Australian men of Somali and Lebanese descent who were allegedly planning to attack a Sydney army barracks with automatic weapons.
"The alleged offenders were prepared to inflict a sustained attack on military personnel until they themselves were killed," said Tony Negus, acting chief commissioner of the Australian Federal Police.
"The men's intention was to go into these army barracks and to kill as many people as possible... This would have been, if it had been able to be carried out, the most serious attack on Australian soil," he added.
Police said the men, aged in their twenties, had links with Somalia's Shebab Islamists and members of the group had previously travelled to the anarchic African nation to fight in the insurgency there.
Nayef El Sayed, 25, appeared in court charged with helping prepare an armed attack on the Holsworthy army base in western Sydney.
Prosecutors asked for further time to interview the other three men arrested, while a fifth man detained earlier was also being questioned.
Source: AFP
About 400 police swooped on homes around Melbourne, netting four Australian men of Somali and Lebanese descent who were allegedly planning to attack a Sydney army barracks with automatic weapons.
"The alleged offenders were prepared to inflict a sustained attack on military personnel until they themselves were killed," said Tony Negus, acting chief commissioner of the Australian Federal Police.
"The men's intention was to go into these army barracks and to kill as many people as possible... This would have been, if it had been able to be carried out, the most serious attack on Australian soil," he added.
Police said the men, aged in their twenties, had links with Somalia's Shebab Islamists and members of the group had previously travelled to the anarchic African nation to fight in the insurgency there.
Nayef El Sayed, 25, appeared in court charged with helping prepare an armed attack on the Holsworthy army base in western Sydney.
Prosecutors asked for further time to interview the other three men arrested, while a fifth man detained earlier was also being questioned.
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