Australia Disrupts ‘Terrorist Plot’ Timed for Christmas, Prime Minister Says Seven people arrested; explosive devices were planned for Melbourne By Rhiannon Hoyle and Rob Taylor
http://www.wsj.com/articles/australia-disrupts-terrorist-plot-timed-for-christmas-prime-minister-says-1482448269
CANBERRA, Australia—Authorities said they disrupted a terrorist plot inspired by Islamic State to explode improvised bombs in central Melbourne on or around Christmas Day, with a railway station and a cathedral among the suspected targets.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said seven people were arrested, of whom five were expected to be charged over the plot. The plan allegedly involved the use of several improvised explosive devices, and a senior police chief said the accused plotters may have planned to use other weapons as well, including knives and a firearm.
Authorities alleged the suspects had scouted popular sites in Melbourne, Australia’s second-largest city and home to some 4 million people, as possible targets. The locations included the centrally located Flinders Street train station, St. Paul’s Cathedral and Federation Square, a popular riverside gathering place.
Mr. Turnbull called it “one of the most substantial terrorist plots” of recent years.
After a truck earlier this week plowed into a Berlin Christmas market, killing 12 people and injuring about 50 others, the Australian government ordered intensified security arrangements ahead of the Christmas and New Year celebrations, with state and national police on guard against a similar attack. Sydney holds large New Year fireworks celebrations each year, usually attracting more than a million people.
In the predawn hours of Friday, counterterrorism police raided several Melbourne buildings and arrested six men and one woman. Five of the men, all in their 20s, were expected to face charges including “acts in preparation of a terrorist event.”
Three appeared in a Melbourne court Friday, aged between 21 and 26, while two others were expected to face a judge on Saturday.
Australia’s five-tier terrorism threat alert system has been set at “probable,” the third-highest level, since September 2014. In December of that year, a lone gunman, later identified as Iranian immigrant Man Haron Monis, took over a central Sydney cafe and held numerous people hostage for 16 hours before police killed the gunman to end the siege. Two hostages—the cafe’s manager and a female customer—also died.
Since then there have been four attacks and 12 others disrupted. In September this year, police charged a 22-year-old man with committing a terrorist act and attempted murder after he allegedly stabbed another man multiple times in Sydney. In total, 57 people have been charged with terrorism-related offenses, Mr. Turnbull said. CONTINUE AT SITE
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