Australia Says Two Cells Were Competing

Two Islamic terrorist cells were competing to become the first to stage a major bombing in Australia, a prosecutor said Tuesday after police arrested 17 suspects in a series of coordinated pre-dawn raids in two cities.Prime Minister John HowardAbout 500 police arrested nine men in the southern city of Melbourne and eight in Sydney, including one man critically injured in a gunfight with police. Police said they expected more arrests in coming days and weeks, but Prime Minister John Howard on Wednesday assured Muslims they were not being targeted. "People who support terrorism are as much their enemies as they are my or your enemies," Howard told Sydney Radio 2GB. "There is nothing in our laws, nor will there be anything in our laws, that targets an individual group, be it Islamic or otherwise." Ameer Ali, president of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, said the country's nearly 300,000-member Muslim community was shocked at the number of arrests and that all the suspects appeared to be Muslims. Some of their supporters clashed violently with news cameramen in Melbourne and Sydney on Tuesday. One of the suspects, Abdulla Merhi, wanted to carry out attacks to avenge the war in Iraq, police said in a Melbourne court. Howard was a strong supporter of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and has sent hundreds of troops to the country. Norm Hazzard, who heads the state's counterterrorism police unit, said the suspects were followers of the al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. "I think you can go back to Osama bin Laden and those who follow his philosophy -- that is what terrorism in its modern form is all about and there's no doubt that this group followed that same philosophy," he said. Police said the alleged plotters apparently had not settled on a target. Adam Houda, a defense lawyer, said the Sydney suspects were innocent. "There's no evidence that terrorism was contemplated or being planned by any particular person at any particular time or at any particular place," he said. The raids came less than a week after Howard strengthened counterterrorism laws and said intelligence agencies had warned of a possible terrorist attack. He went on national TV Tuesday to say the risk was not over, despite the arrests. "This country has never been immune from a possible terrorist attack," he said. "That remains the situation today and it will be the situation tomorrow." Ali traveled to Canberra on Wednesday to appeal to the government to abandon plans to pass additional counterterrorism laws by Christmas. Muslims were concerned that provisions preventing terror suspects from discussing their detentions and interrogations and the media from reporting it could conceal abuses in the system and lead to racial profiling. "Under the existing laws, they have averted a disaster from taking place in this country; they have arrested the people who have been conspiring ... so we don't need new laws," Ali said. Both cells were led by one of the detainees, the 45-year-old firebrand cleric Abu Bakr, an Australian who was born in Algeria, a prosecutor said. Bakr made headlines earlier this year by calling bin Laden a "good man." The suspects were stockpiling the same kind of chemicals used in the deadly July 7 transit bombings in London, prosecutor Richard Maidment said at a hearing for the nine people arrested there. "Each of the members of the group are committed to the cause of violent jihad," he added, saying they underwent training at a camp northeast of Melbourne. Bakr was charged with leading the terrorist group while the Melbourne suspects were charged with membership of a terror group. Two of the men were denied bail on Wednesday. The seven men arrested in Sydney were ordered jailed until another session Friday on charges of preparing a terrorist act by manufacturing explosives. The man shot by police was under guard in hospital and was not immediately charged. Detective Sgt. Chris Murray told the court that police surveillance had picked up one suspect, 20-year-old Merhi, pleading for permission to become a martyr. Murray said Merhi appeared impatient and it was clear to police he wanted to die in a way "similar to the nature of a suicide bomber." Maidment said the Melbourne cell appeared eager to be first to stage an attack. "There has been discussion amongst the Melbourne group that the Sydney group were further ahead of them and they were anxious to do something themselves," he said.