Australia Nabs 16 In Terror Raids

Australian officials said they believe police foiled a major terror attack Monday after they arrested 16 terror suspects, including a prominent Muslim cleric, in a string of raids early Tuesday. Officials had previously reported 17 arrests.

"I'm satisfied that we have disrupted what I would regard as the final stages of a large scale terrorist attack ... here in Australia," New South Wales Police Commissioner Ken Moroney told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

A lawyer for eight of the men said among those arrested is a leading Algerian-Australian cleric who has said that while the killing of innocents is wrong, he would be violating his faith if he warned his students against joining the jihad, or holy war, in Iraq.

Moroney said 400 officers, including federal and state police, were involved in raids in Sydney.

The Australian Federal Police said in a statement that eight men were arrested in Sydney and nine in Melbourne in the coordinated raids that also netted evidence including chemicals, weapons, computers and backpacks.

The arrests followed a 16-month investigation by federal and state police and intelligence agents. Several of the suspects as this past weekend were closely linked to fugitive Saleh Jamal, a Sydney man who was arrested on weapons charges in Lebanon.

The Australian found that a command post had been established Monday in Sydney and a parallel operation was underway in Melbourne.

Moroney said apparent bomb making materials were found during the raids.

He said chemicals were found which, "when combined in combinations of one or more, certainly could be highly volatile."

Police declined to give details of the likely target of the attack, but Victoria state police chief Christine Nixon said that next year's Commonwealth Games, to be held in Melbourne, were not a target.

"It's the largest operation of counterterrorism that's ever been conducted in this country and its taken us a long period of time," Nixon said on television.

"We believe that they were planning an operation and we weren't exactly sure when — nor more importantly what — they planned to damage or do harm to and so it was a point when we had sufficient evidence we were able then to move which is what happened this morning," Nixon added.

Melbourne lawyer Rob Stary said he represented eight of the suspects arrested in the city.

He said one of those arrested in Melbourne was outspoken radical Muslim cleric Abu Bakr, an Algerian-Australian who in the past has called al Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden a "great man." Abu Bakr leads a fundamentalist Islamic group in the southern city of Melbourne where he has lived since 1989.

Stary said the nine men held in Melbourne, including Abu Bakr, had been charged with being members of a banned organization under anti-terrorism legislation. The group had not been specified by authorities, he said.

"They are not charged with being involved in the planning or preparation (of a terrorist act) ... they are charged with a membership offense only," he said.

Senior federal lawmaker, Treasurer Peter Costello, said the arrests "really illustrate that the threat of terrorism is real, that we cannot be complacent about it."

"It's no consolation to wait until after an event and then try and pick up the suspects," he told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

The suspects were expected to appear in courts in Sydney and Melbourne later Tuesday.

Australia has never been hit by a major terror attack, but its citizens have repeatedly been targeted overseas, particularly in neighboring Indonesia.

The Bangkok Post reported that the suspects had reportedly carried out surveillance of targets such as the world-famous icons Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge, as well as rail stations and the stock exchange in Melbourne.

Last week Prime Minister John Howard rushed through parliament an amendment to terror laws he said would beef up police powers to arrest suspects plotting attacks.

Opponents say Howard's strong support for the U.S.-led strikes on Iraq and decision to send troops there and to Afghanistan have made it inevitable Australia will be attacked.

Last year, the country's embassy in Jakarta was badly damaged by a suicide bomber and dozens of Australians were killed in bombings in 2002 and last month on the Indonesian resort island of Bali.