Australian police arrest two suspected terrorists

Counter-terrorism police in Sydney, Australia have arrested two men on terror charges. One suspect was charged with the possession of documents designed to facilitate a terrorist attack, while the other one was charged with breaching a control order.

The first man, 20-year-old Sulayman Khalid, was found with documents that mentioned potential government targets, according to Austrlian police.

"I am confident that we've disrupted the activity that they were planning," Austrlian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Michael Phelan said on Wednesady.

“[However]. there is nothing that indicates at all that [there were] any specific targets or time frame in relation to this particular activity at all."

Khalid did not apply for bail. If convicted, he could face up to 15 years in prison.

The second arrest was of a 21-year-old man who cannot be named for legal reasons and who was also denied bail. Police say that he had breached an order preventing him from accessing certain forms of telecommunications.

The arrests come after Iranian gunman Man Haron Monis, a self-styled Islamic cleric, kept 17 people hostage in a café in Sydney’s city centre. Australian police laid the café to a 16-hour siege, during which Haron Monis and two hostages were killed. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said there had been a “heightened level of chatter amongst people who we would normally think of as terrorist sympathisers”.

"We don't know when and how an attack may come, but we do know there are people with the intent and the capability to carry out further attacks," Abbott told a meeting of the National Security Committee on Tuesday.

Australian police say 11 people have now been arrested and charged with terrorism-related offences since the start of an anti-terrorism campaign in September, soon after Australia’s terror threat level was raised to “high” for the first time.