Counterterror Operation
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Australia
announces arrests over attack plot
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Police cite "no specific
terrorist threat" after filing charges against two men in Sydney as part
of ongoing probe.
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Australia, a US ally in the fight
against ISIL, is on high alert for attacks by sympathisers of the group [EPA
file]
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Australian police say two men have been arrested in
Sydney as part of an ongoing investigation into a group that officials have
accused of plotting to kill a random member of the public in the largest
Australian city.
Sulayman Khalid, 20, was charged with possession of
documents designed to facilitate an attack, while a 21-year-old was charged
with breaching a control order, police said on Wednesday.
Tony Abbott, prime minister, said on Tuesday
that security officials had intercepted a heightened level of "terrorist
chatter", but there were no specific threats of attacks.
Michael Phelan, Australian federal police deputy
commissioner, said there was "no specific terrorist threat"
and the arrests were related to an ongoing "counterterrorism
operation" that led to a series of raids in Sydney in September.
One man was charged at that time with conspiring
with a fighter leader in Syria to behead a random person in Sydney,
Associated Press news agency reported.
"There is nothing that indicates at all that
[there were] any specific targets or time frame in relation to this
particular activity at all,'' Phelan said, though he added that the documents
seized by police did talk about potential government targets.
Australia, a staunch ally of the US and its action
against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq (ISIL), is on high alert for
attacks by sympathisers of the group and from home-grown fighters returning
from fighting in the Middle East.
Police said they had now arrested and charged 11
people with terrorism-related offences since launching massive raids in
Sydney and Brisbane in September, soon after raising the terror threat to
"high" for the first time.
Man Haron Monis, a self-styled sheikh who was facing
numerous charges for violent crimes, held hostages at gunpoint at the Lindt
Chocolate Cafe in Martin Place, a central Sydney shopping and office
precinct, from morning on Monday last week.
Two hostages, cafe manager Tori Johnson and lawyer
Katrina Dawson, were killed along with Monis
when police stormed the cafe.
An official investigation into the final moments of
the siege and the deaths of all three is under way.
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