Recent anti-terror raids in Sydney are the latest in a series of operations which have stopped potentially catastrophic attacks on home soil.
Counter-terror police on Monday continue to scour the homes of four Sydney men arrested after investigators uncovered an alleged plot to bring down an airliner.
The raid marked the 13th time authorities have stopped a terror attack in Australia, justice minister Michael Keenan said. Since 2014 Australia has had more than a dozen near misses, with multiple raids and arrests across Sydney and Melbourne.
A Brief History Of Terror Raids In Australia
July 2017 -- Police thwart alleged plot to bomb an airliner. Four men were arrested by the Australian Federal Police searched properties in Surry Hills, Lakemba, Wiley Park and Punchbowl.
June 2017 --Yacqub Khayre is shot and killed following a lengthy stand off with police in the southern Melbourne suburb of Brighton. Khayre was known by counter-terrorism police and had been on parole. Terror group Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the siege.
Dec 2016 -- Seven people arrested after allegedly preparing a Christmas Day attack in Melbourne involving an improvised explosive device (IED), as well as knives and guns.
Oct 2016 -- Two 16-year-old schoolboys detained in a laneway behind a Bankstown mosque, hours after they allegedly bought two bayonets at a local gun shop. They had had allegedly bought bayonet knives at a gun store just hours before they were picked up, and had been on authorities' radar for a while.
May 2016 -- A Sydney teenager is arrested on suspicion of preparing to commit a terrorist attack and trying to travel to Syria.
Dec 2015 -- Five people arrested after allegedly amassing illegal firearms and ammunition as part of a 'partially-formed plot.'
Oct 2015 -- Five men arrested in raids sparked by the murder of police accountant Curtis Cheng by radicalised Sydney schoolboy Farhad Jabar.
June 2015 -- New South Wales Joint Counter Terrorism Team (JCTT) arrest a 17-year-old boy at his home. He is charged with planning a terrorist act and using a telecommunications network to commit a serious offence.
.@MichaelKeenanMP: the latest terror raid is the 13th time authorities have stopped an attack from occurring in Aust https://t.co/UdXoi4RJjypic.twitter.com/jkoU9gTCv1
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) July 30, 2017
May 2015 -- Teen raided after he began messaging radicals overseas. Counter-terror police reportedly found ISIS propaganda material, pressure cookers, pipe bombs, shrapnel and homemade explosive that the teen later admitted were to be used in a bombing.
April 2015 -- 200 heavily armed officers swoop on Melbourne's south-east, arresting five teenagers and seizing knives and swords. Among them is Sevdet Ramadan Besim, 19, who later pleaded guilty to plotting to behead a police officer during the 2015 Anzac Day parade.
Feb 2015 -- NSW police arrest two men in Fairfield, seizing a machete, Islamic State-style flag and videotape with one of the men detailing an alleged plot.
Dec 2014 -- Police raid five homes in Sydney discovering several pages of scribbled, hand-written notes making reference to government buildings and "guerrilla warfare" in the Blue Mountains.
Sept 2014 -- After thwarting a beheading plot, authorities launch Australia's 'biggest ever counter terrorism raid' involving 800 police across Sydney's west and north-west, and Brisbane's south. Mohammad Ali Baryalei, then Australia's most senior Islamic State member, allegedly called contacts in Australia and asked them to carry out a campaign of random public beheadings in Sydney and Brisbane. Fifteen people were detained.
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