Sydney -- Two Australians charged with planning a terrorist act in Sydney plotted two attacks, including building a "fully functional home-made bomb" to bring down an Etihad flight, police said Friday. The men attempted to place the "high-end military grade explosive," hidden in a meat grinder, on an Etihad flight out of Sydney on July 15, Phelan told reporters in Sydney. The plan was aborted at the last minute for unknown reasons, and "at no stage did the device breach airline security," Phelan said. The brother of one of the men charged is a senior member of the Islamic State group in Syria, "who introduced another person, who we call the controller, to one of the people that has been charged," Phelan said. Four men were arrested Saturday during a sweeping counter-terrorism operation across Sydney, with about half a dozen houses raided and the country's aviation terrorism threat level later raised to "probable."

Source: The China Post August 05, 2017 00:00 UTC