MELBOURNE
Counter-terrorism police in Australia allegedly discovered documents outlining government targets, local media reported Wednesday.
The list of federal and state government "entities" in Sydney were uncovered during an operation that resulted in two arrests late Tuesday, broadcaster ABC News said.
Sulayman Khalid, 20, has been charged with possession of documents designed to facilitate a terrorist attack while a 21-year-old man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was charged with breaching a control order.
Both men appeared before a court Wednesday, where they were both remanded in custody.
Federal police said they seized documents at Khalid’s home during raids last week.
Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Michael Phelan said the documents named potential targets in Sydney.
"Certainly the documents talked a little bit about potential government targets and so on," he said, quoted by ABC.
"[There were] no threats at all against the prime minister but some of the potential targets written in the documentation were around federal and state government entities.”
He added: "There is nothing that indicates any specific targets or time frame in relation to this particular activity at all.”
New South Wales Police Deputy Commissioner Catherine Burn said the investigation was not over.
"We are very, very confident in what we have been able to achieve in making sure we disrupt any activity, any threat to the safety of any person in New South Wales and this country," she said.
Khalid, who also uses the name Abu Bakr, could face a maximum 15 years in jail. Earlier this year he appeared on a television show discussing Australians travelling to fight in Syria and Iraq.
ABC reported 11 people have appeared in court on terror charges since Operation Appleby was launched in September. The wide-scale anti-terror operation involving federal police, New South Wales police and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation is focused on the alleged planning of a terrorist attack on Australian soil and helping Australians travel to Syria to fight.
One plot is said to have involved a plan to behead a member of the public.
The arrests come the same day Prime Minister Tony Abbott warned of a heightened level of "terrorist chatter" in the aftermath of the Sydney cafe siege, in which Man Haron Monis took 17 hostages in the city center. After a 16-hour siege two hostages and Monis were killed.
www.aa.com.tr/en
