Australian police have unveiled a foiled terrorist plot where two men from Sydney, Australia, attempted to place an ISIS-supplied explosive onto a plane last month, in what authorities call “one of the most sophisticated plots that has ever been attempted on Australian soil,” Fox News reported.
An ISIS commander sent parts by air cargo from Turkey to Australia so that an improvised explosive device (IED) could be made, Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Michael Phelan said at a news conference Friday.
The other plot the two terrorists had was to release poisonous hydrogen sulfide gas in a public area. However, the two men were not able to produce the deadly gas due to the difficulty of making the chemical.
Khaled Khayat and Mahmoud Khayat were charged Thursday with two counts of “acts done in preparation for, or planning, a terrorist act,” according to the Australian Federal Police.
The two men were allegedly trying to bring the IED on an Etihad Airways flight on July 15, but were unable to get it past the airline’s check-in desk as it was being checked in. A decoy was also found.
Parts of a meat grinder were found at the suspects’ home, which was allegedly going to be used to disguise the IED.
According to Phelan, one of the suspected terrorists was planning to allegedly plant the IED on his unsuspecting brother to take on the flight with him.
“We’ll be alleging that the person who was to carry the IED on the plane had no idea they were going to be carrying an IED,” Phelan said.
The two men appeared by video on Friday in Sydney’s Parramatta Court, and a court hearing was deferred until November 14.
Four people were initially arrested; one has since been released and another held without charge under counter-terror laws, Fox reported.
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