Two arrested in Sydney counterterror operation

Two men were arrested as part of an ongoing counterterrorism investigation into a plot to kill a random member of the public in Sydney, police said Wednesday, one day after the nation’s prime minister warned of heightened terrorist chatter in the aftermath of a deadly siege in a Sydney cafe.

One 20-year-old Sydney man was charged on Tuesday with possession of documents designed to facilitate a terrorist attack, while a 21-year-old was charged with breaching a control order, police said.

“Certainly the documents talked a little bit about potential government targets,” said Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner for National Security Michael Phelan.

He said the targets were in Sydney, but did not go into detail.

“I am confident that we’ve disrupted the activity that they were planning. And that is all I’m prepared to say at this particular point.”

Phelan said the arrests were related to a counterterrorism operation that led to a series of raids in Sydney in September. One man was charged at that time with conspiring with an Islamic State leader in Syria to behead a random person in Sydney.

Tuesday’s arrests bring to 11 the number of people charged in connection with that operation.

“There is nothing that indicates at all that (there were) any specific targets or time frame in relation to this particular activity at all,” Phelan said.

More than 70 Australians are currently fighting for Islamic militants overseas. At least 20 have died and there are fears that increasing numbers of youths are being radicalized and could mount attacks at home.

The latest arrests came a day after Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott warned there had been a “heightened level of terror chatter” in the week since a gunman took 18 people hostage in a downtown Sydney cafe. The standoff ended 16 hours later when police stormed the cafe in a barrage of gunfire to free the captives. Two hostages were killed, along with the gunman, a 50-year-old Iranian-born, self-styled cleric.

Australia has not officially branded the Sydney siege as a terrorist attack and Abbott declined to speculate on any potential new threat.

Phelen said police had been monitoring a particular group of between 15 and 20 people with 11 of them charged since the September raids, some for “serious terrorism offenses.”

“It is a group of people here in Sydney that we’ve been actively monitoring for a long period of time now and any action they take we want to try to get ahead of them,” he said.

Asked if they had a name, he replied: “No. Certainly their ideology is linked to IS overseas.”

Australia raised its threat level to high in September, which means an attack is likely.