Australia foils 'most serious' terror plot

MELBOURNE, Australia: Australian police said yesterday they thwarted a terrorist plot in which extremists with ties to an Al-Qaida-linked Somali Islamist group planned to invade a military base and open fire with automatic weapons until they were shot dead themselves.

Some 400 officers from state and national security services took part in 19 raids on properties in Melbourne, Australia's second largest city, before dawn yesterday, arresting four men and detaining several others for questioning, police said.

Australian Federal Police Acting Commissioner Tony Negus said the raids followed a seven-month surveillance operation of a group of people with alleged ties to al-Shabaab, an Islamist organization fighting to overthrow Somalia's Western-backed transitional government.