Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has said the foiled terror plot and arrest of four suspects in Melbourne today are a reminder of the "enduring threat of terrorism both at home and overseas".
"This is a sober reminder that the threat of terrorism to Australia continues," Rudd told reporters in the northern city of Cairns.
Rudd's remark came soon after the arrest of four suspects — all Australian citizen — allegedly linked to a Somali militant group during a series of pre-dawn raids on 19 properties in Melbourne and Colac. The group was planning a suicide attack on Sydney's Holsworthy Army base.
A Somali community spokesman today said he had been warning of the prospect of an attempted terror attack on Australian soil for three years.
"Only too recently we have been reminded of the consequences of this threat in the tragic Jakarta bombings in which three Australians lost their lives," Rudd said stressing that the Indonesian attacks were not connected to today's arrests.
He acknowledged many Australians would be concerned about "arrests of this nature in our midst". Rudd, however, stressed the alleged terror group was small.
"Our assessment of the terrorist threat in Australia is that it comes from a small number of individuals who should in no way be taken as a wider reflection of any group in Australian society.
Rudd said the national counter terror threat level remained at medium, which was the same as that after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.
He assured the nation that the enforcement and intelligence agencies were working hard to combat terrorism.
"(They) should be confident about Australia's strong and coordinated efforts to combat terrorism, but these efforts will continue just as Australians should remain mindful of the fact that the threat of terrorism continues," he said.
The allegations that an Australian terrorist cell was linked to al-Shabaab militant group and supporting insurgent activities in Somalia is not a surprise in some quarters of the community.
Somali community in Victoria spokesman Abdurahman Osman said that he has been warning about the rise of terror groups in Australia for years.
Osman told a radio channel that he had raised the prospect of a terror attack in Australia at least 10 times over the past three years on community radio broadcasts, because of the activities of al-Shabaab around the world.
Melbourne-based Somali man Hasan said that he knows some of the men who were arrested and denied they would have anything to do with terror. They are "good men" who want peace in their homeland, he said.
"There is nothing, and I can guarantee this is baseless. There are many supporters of many Somali factions that live here. But at the end of the day, there is no Somali that lives in this country that has anything against this country," he said.
Meanwhile, Islamic Council of Victoria urged calm amid a series of arrests, with its President Ramzi Elsayed said the council was confident police would be to the highest standards.
"The (council) also expects that the police will respect the legal rights of the people arrested in this morning's operation," he said.
Elsayed also welcomed comments by Victorian Police Commissioner Simon Overland stressing that the Muslims in no way approve or support any kind of terrorist.
