AUSTRALIAN security agencies appear to have averted a major terrorist attack on home soil with a series of dramatic raids on a suspected terrorist network this morning.
Sixteen people were arrested and are facing terrorism-related charges over a plot to carry out an attack.
Government and police officials said today some of the group had been stockpiling chemicals to make an explosive device.
Some of the alleged terrorists appeared in court today. Among them was Adbul Nacer Benbrika, the radical Islamic cleric also known as Abu Bakr.
A court in Melbourne heard Benbrika was the co-ordinator and spiritual leader of the group.
Some 500 police officers, a combination of state police officers and federal agents, launched some 22 raids on properties in Sydney and Melbourne simultaneously at 2.30am this morning.
Later in the morning, one of the suspects tried to flee police and fired gunshots at them. Officers returned fire and the man has been taken to hospital with serious injuries.
Police seized documentation and computer hard drives from the addresses in several Sydney suburbs including Wiley Park and Lakemba, while homes in Melbourne's suburbs of Brunswick, Coburg and Broadmeadows were raided.
It has been claimed the group may have been plotting a terrorist spectacular on the scale of the al-Qaeda attacks on London and Madrid. ( More: Chemical 'threat')
NSW Police Commissioner Ken Moroney said the group's plans, if successful, would have been "catastrophic".
Authorities have not yet identified any specific targets the suspects were planning to attack.
The first details of the charges against the 16 terror suspects were outlined in a Melbourne court today.
Victorian police had more than 240 hours of phone intercepts in which the group discussed plans to kill Australian civilians, the court heard.
Some of the group had attended military training, and they had a pooled fund of money to finance alleged plots, the court heard.
Benbrika was the co-ordinator and spiritual leader of the group, prosecutor Richard Maidment QC said.
"It is alleged that all of the persons who have been before the court this morning along with another not presently in custody constitutes a terrorist organisation," Mr Maidment said.
"That organisation is directed by the defendant Benbrika.
"Each of the members of the group are committed to the cause of violent jihad," he said.
The arrests come just days after the Federal Government rushed changes to anti-terrorist legislation through Parliament.
Prime Minister John Howard warned the changes were necessary because "specific intelligence and police information" indicated a group was close to carrying out a terrorist spectacular on Australian soil.
Victorian Premier Steve Bracks said documents and computer hard drives had been seized and that in Sydney some chemicals had been seized.
Sixteen people were arrested and are facing terrorism-related charges over a plot to carry out an attack.
Government and police officials said today some of the group had been stockpiling chemicals to make an explosive device.
Some of the alleged terrorists appeared in court today. Among them was Adbul Nacer Benbrika, the radical Islamic cleric also known as Abu Bakr.
A court in Melbourne heard Benbrika was the co-ordinator and spiritual leader of the group.
Some 500 police officers, a combination of state police officers and federal agents, launched some 22 raids on properties in Sydney and Melbourne simultaneously at 2.30am this morning.
Later in the morning, one of the suspects tried to flee police and fired gunshots at them. Officers returned fire and the man has been taken to hospital with serious injuries.
Police seized documentation and computer hard drives from the addresses in several Sydney suburbs including Wiley Park and Lakemba, while homes in Melbourne's suburbs of Brunswick, Coburg and Broadmeadows were raided.
It has been claimed the group may have been plotting a terrorist spectacular on the scale of the al-Qaeda attacks on London and Madrid. ( More: Chemical 'threat')
NSW Police Commissioner Ken Moroney said the group's plans, if successful, would have been "catastrophic".
Authorities have not yet identified any specific targets the suspects were planning to attack.
The first details of the charges against the 16 terror suspects were outlined in a Melbourne court today.
Victorian police had more than 240 hours of phone intercepts in which the group discussed plans to kill Australian civilians, the court heard.
Some of the group had attended military training, and they had a pooled fund of money to finance alleged plots, the court heard.
Benbrika was the co-ordinator and spiritual leader of the group, prosecutor Richard Maidment QC said.
"It is alleged that all of the persons who have been before the court this morning along with another not presently in custody constitutes a terrorist organisation," Mr Maidment said.
"That organisation is directed by the defendant Benbrika.
"Each of the members of the group are committed to the cause of violent jihad," he said.
The arrests come just days after the Federal Government rushed changes to anti-terrorist legislation through Parliament.
Prime Minister John Howard warned the changes were necessary because "specific intelligence and police information" indicated a group was close to carrying out a terrorist spectacular on Australian soil.
Victorian Premier Steve Bracks said documents and computer hard drives had been seized and that in Sydney some chemicals had been seized.
