Australia arrests 3 over mass attack plot

Australian police and intelligence forces have detained three men in a raid in the country’s second-largest city of Melbourne over a plot to carry out a mass terrorist attack.

The raid and arrests were carried out by Australian federal and state police, the country’s Security Intelligence Organization, and other agencies that make up the government’s Joint Counter-Terrorism Team on Tuesday morning, local media reported.

The raid was called after the men — who police say were inspired by the Daesh terrorist group — allegedly sought to acquire a semi-automatic weapon to carry out an attack.

“We now have sufficient evidence to act in relation to preventing a terrorist attack,” said Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton in a press briefing.

“They were certainly looking at a place of mass gathering, where there would be crowds,” Ashton further said. “They were trying to focus on trying to have a place where they could kill as many people as possible.”

Police authorities also emphasized that although the suspects had yet to decide on the site of their planned attack, they believed the act was imminent. They also underlined that the arrests had neutralized any further threat.

The three suspects taken into custody were identified by authorities as Australian citizens of Turkish descent, aged 21, 26, and 30, who are due to be arraigned on terrorism-related charges in a Melbourne court later on Tuesday. They will face life imprisonment sentences if found guilty.

The authorities further declared that the suspects were known to authorities and their passports had been revoked earlier in the year due to concerns they would travel to an unspecified conflict zone overseas.

According to local reports, Australia has been on high alert since 2014 for potential terror attacks by those returning from combat zones in the Middle East or their supporters. Such reports mean that Australian authorities have been aware that their citizens had engaged in Daesh-linked terrorist campaigns in countries such as Iraq and Syria.

The Tuesday raid came less than two weeks after a man set ablaze a pick-up truck laden with gas cylinders in the center of Melbourne and stabbed three people, killing one, before being shot by police.

He had been inspired by Daesh, according to police.

PressTV-Melbourne attacker inspired by Daesh: police

Australian police say a man who stabbed three people in central Melbourne had been inspired by Daesh.

Police said the suspects nabbed on Tuesday did not have any links to the man responsible for the November 9 stabbing attack, although they had sped up their planning in the aftermath of that assault.

“Certainly over the last week, they’ve become energized about doing something more quickly,” Ashton stressed, referring to the three men caught in the latest raid.

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