Australia.Arrests in Raids to Disrupt Plot to Bring Down Plane July/17

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said Sunday that police conducted a counter-terror operation "to disrupt a plot to bring down an airplane," and announced increased security at the nation's airports.

"The operation is continuing. At this stage four people have been arrested and a considerable amount of material has been seized by police," Turnbull said in an address at around 7:30 a.m. Sunday morning local time (5:30 p.m. Saturday ET).

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According to Covlin, the plot included the potential use of "an improvised device" and the "aviation industry was possibly the target of the attack."

"We believe it's Islamic-inspired terrorism," Colvin said when asked if the ISIS group was behind the plot.
Australian Federal Police said the multiple searches were conducted in the Sydney suburbs of Lakemba, Surry Hills, Wiley Park and Punchbowl. The searches were expected to continue for "many hours and days," according to Colvin.

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dotr said:

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/a...rrested-raids-disrupt-plot-bring-down-n787811

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Jennifer17 said:

The Australian Federal Police have a good track record of finding out about plots. I guess that we are lucky that there are so few of us.

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Officers scoured properties across Sydney today, as they tried piece together the details of the horrific scheme which brought the dramatic arrests on Saturday.

The four Lebanese Australians remain in custody, with police granted an extension to hold them for a further seven days.
Relatives Mahmoud and Khaled Khayat were arrested in Lakemba, while Khaled Merhi was arrested in Surry Hills. Mr Merhi's son Abdul was also arrested.

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Khaled Merhi (left), Mahmoud Khayat (centre) and Khaled Khayat (right) were arrested over the alleged plot. (9NEWS)

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A flight number - QF41 - found in the garbage bin of a Lakemba home has been linked to the alleged terror plot.

It is understood the British intelligence agency Mi5 passed on the information to ASIO that prompted the weekend raids.
The AFP is investigating the possibility that the plot was conceived in Syria and could have been targeting a flight out of Jakarta.

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The Australian reported that the suspected Islamic militants wanted to gas the travellers with a toxic sulphur-based immobiliser.

The Daily Telegraph claimed the alleged plot may have involved a crude homemade bomb disguised as a kitchen meat grinder that was to be carried in hand luggage.

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[h=1]Australian terror suspect 'planted plane bomb on brother'[/h]

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Australian Federal Police (AFP) Deputy Commissioner Michael Phelan said this was "one of the most sophisticated plots that has ever been attempted on Australian soil".

He said two suspects had built and concealed a "high-end" military-grade explosive in a piece of luggage.

The plan was for the brother of one of the suspects to take the luggage with him onboard an Etihad Airways plane leaving Sydney airport on 15 July. The brother was not aware of the bomb, said police.

But for some reason the plan was aborted at the last minute, and although the piece of luggage was taken to the airport, it was not checked in. The brother then boarded the flight - whose destination has not been specified - without the luggage.

"There is a bit of conjecture [about] why it did not get through the baggage check-in, but I want to make it quite clear - it never got near [security] screening," he said.

Police say the suspects had assembled the bomb using parts that were sent in one package from Turkey via air cargo, which was arranged by a senior IS figure.

One of the suspects had been in contact with that figure since April.

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Australia has been touched by the threat of terror several times - most often by so-called home-grown or lone wolf dangers.

What makes the latest alleged plots different is that they are believed to have been co-ordinated abroad, with an IS controller giving instructions over the course of three months.

Police have repeatedly stressed how sophisticated they believe these plans had become, alleging that IS successfully managed to send military-grade explosives into Australia.

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[h=2]What is Australia's threat level?[/h]The nation's official terror warning level remains at "probable" - the third level on a scale of five.
"This is the 13th time, because of the excellence of our law enforcement agencies, that we have been able to stop a terrorist attack from occurring on Australian soil in the past three years," Justice Minister Michael Keenan said on Friday.

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Lebanese-Australian brothers intended to blow up plane using Barbie doll bomb: Authorities

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BEIRUT — Lebanon’s interior minister said Monday that the country’s police intelligence played a major role in foiling a plot to bring down an Emirati passenger plane that was supposed to take off from Sydney bound for the United Arab Emirates’ capital, Abu Dhabi.

Nouhad Machnouk told reporters that four Lebanese-Australian brothers, including one who is in detention in Lebanon, had planned to blow up the plane with bombs hidden inside a large Barbie doll and a meat grinder. He said the bombs did not make it onto the plane because the handbag they were placed in was 7 kilograms (15.4 pounds) above the weight permitted by the airline.

Machnouk said the bombs were sent back to the would-be attacker’s home in Australia. He said the attacker tried to bring two explosives on the plane in case one of them did not work. The second would be detonated by one of the brothers who was supposed to be the suicide attacker. It was not immediately clear how authorities uncovered the plot.

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Machnouk said two of the brothers, Khaled and Mahmoud Khayyat, are held in Australia, while another, Tarek, is a senior member of the Islamic State group based in the northern Syrian city of Raqqa. He added that the fourth brother, Amer, was supposed to be on board the plane, working to bring it down 20 minutes after takeoff, but was arrested in Lebanon after he arrived in mid-July from Australia.

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