Four men linked to a Somali militant group were arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of planning a suicide attack with automatic weapons on an Australian military base, police said. The four were arrested after hundreds of police raided 19 properties across Melbourne at dawn after a seven-month investigation involving Australia’s national security organization, ASIO. Those arrested were due in court later on Tuesday. Officials said Australia’s terror warning alert would remain at medium level, where it has been since 2003, but Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the arrests showed threats remained. “The sobering element to emerge from today’s development is the reminder to all Australians that the threat of terrorism is alive and well,” he said in Cairns. Rudd said Tuesday’s arrests were not linked to deadly bombings at two luxury hotels in Jakarta last month that killed three Australians. Acting Australian Federal Police Commissioner Tony Negus told reporters that those arrested had been planning a suicide attack. “The men’s intention was to actually go into the army barracks and to kill as many soldiers as they could until they themselves were killed,” he said. “We believe the men were linked with Al Shabab in Somalia,” he said, adding police have not ruled out further arrests. Al Shabab is a hardline militant Islamist youth group that is deeply involved in violence in war-torn Somalia. Analysts say it has recently had success recruiting from the Somali diaspora and other Muslim youths abroad. Australia has gradually tightened anti-terror laws since the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States when the government became an active participant in hostilities in Iraq and Afghanistan, where over 1,000 Australians are currently serving with foreign forces. While Australia has never suffered a peacetime attack on home soil, more than 90 Australians have been killed in bomb attacks in Indonesia since 2002. Police said those arrested on Tuesday had been involved in surveillance at the Holsworthy army barracks in suburban Sydney. Police had cordoned off a house in Melbourne’s northern suburbs and set up a tent, and were seen carrying out boxes of evidence in the quiet suburban street.
