Nov. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Australian police arrested an 18th man over alleged terrorism offences three days after detaining members of suspected terrorist cells in Sydney and Melbourne.
A 25-year-old man was charged with belonging to a terrorist group after he was detained late yesterday in Guilford, a southern Sydney suburb, according to an e-mailed police statement. The man will appear court today, along with eight other people arrested in Sydney on Nov. 8 and 9 and charged with stockpiling explosive chemicals and being members of a terrorist group.
Nine other men arrested in Melbourne on Nov. 8 are in police custody and will appear in court on Jan. 31. They have been charged with being members of or directing a terrorist group, offences which carry jail terms of as much as 25 years.
Members of the Melbourne group downloaded an al-Qaeda document that called on Muslims to commit the ``heroic act of jihad'' against the West, the Australian newspaper reported today. Australia has supported the U.S.-led war on terrorism and has soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The al-Qaeda information was found during police raids on three Melbourne houses in June, the Australian reported, without saying where it obtained the information. Evidence found during the June raids played a key role in the arrests this week, the newspaper said. |