Army base is targeted, more face charges,Four men charged with terrorism offences after Melbourne raid

MELBOURNE - One man has faced court and several more could be charged over an alleged suicide plot to kill Australian soldiers in what police say would have been the deadliest terror attack on Australian soil. Four people were arrested and more were being questioned after pre-dawn raids on 19 properties across Melbourne and regional Victoria foiled the plot to attack the Holsworthy army base, in western Sydney. Nayef El Sayed, of Glenroy in Melbourne's north, appeared in Melbourne Magistrates Court charged with conspiring with four men and other unknown people to prepare an armed attack on Holsworthy, base to several thousand troops.
Australian Federal Police Acting Chief Commissioner Tony Negus said the men were planning a suicide shoot-out with automatic weapons. "The men's intention was to actually go into the army barracks and to kill as many soldiers as they could before they were killed," Mr Negus said..
"Potentially this would have been, if it had been able to be carried out, the most serious terrorist attack on Australian soil." He said investigators also believed the men had links to a north African terrorist group, al-Shabaab, which has links to al-Qaeda. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says the alleged plot shows the threat of terrorism is alive and well. "There is an enduring threat from terrorism at home here in Australia as well as overseas," Mr Rudd said in Cairns. Following a seven-month joint operation, 400 AFP and Victoria Police officers launched raids at 4.30am yesterday on properties in suburbs in Melbourne's north, inner city Carlton and Colac in the state's south-west. The four arrested men, who are all Australian citizens of Lebanese and Somalian descent, are El Sayed and a 26-year-old Carlton man, a 25-year-old Preston man and a 22-year-old man from Meadow Heights. Police are also interviewing a fifth man, a 33-year-old, who is already in custody in relation to other matters. AFP agent David Kinton had earlier told the court police believed there was a conspiracy to commit an act in preparation of terrorism. He said there were a number of phone intercepts in which another suspect, Saney Aweyz, allegedly raised the possibility of sending men to be involved in the civil war in Somalia. ..more..http://www.examiner.com.au/news/local/news/today/army-base-is-targeted-more-face-charges/1586876.aspx?storypage=0
Four men charged with terrorism offences after Melbourne raid
UPDATE 9.52am: FOUR men have been charged with terrorism offences following a series of police raids in Melbourne yesterday.A 26-year-old Carlton man, a 25-year-old Preston man and a 22-year-old Meadow Heights man were charged overnight with conspiring to do acts in preparation for a terrorist act. The men are expected to appear at Melbourne Magistrates' Court this morning. Nayef El Sayed, 25, from Glenroy, appeared in court yesterday and was charged with the same offence.Another man, 33, is also expected to appear in the same court this morning and is expected to be charged with the same offence. ..more..http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25884123-661,00.html