Alwaght- Australia has thwarted a terrorist plot aimed at downing an aircraft with explosives and arrested four men Saturday and arrested four men Saturday, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced Sunday.
"I can report last night that there has been a major joint counter-terrorism operation to disrupt a terrorist plot to bring down an airplane," he said at a news conference in Sydney.
"The threat of terrorism is very real. The disruption operation, the efforts overnight have been very effective but there's more work to do," he added.
Turnbull also noted that the national terror alert level, which was elevated on September 2014 amid rising concerns over attacks by Daesh and similar organizations, would stay at probable.
"The primary threat to Australia still remains lone actors, but there's still the ability for people to have sophisticated plots and sophisticated attacks still remain a real threat," he added.
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin added that local police had obtained "credible information from partner agencies" in relation to the thwarted attack.
"In recent days, law enforcement has become aware of information that suggested some people in Sydney were planning to commit a terrorist attack using an IED (improvised explosive device)," he said.
"However, we're investigating information indicating the aviation industry was potentially a target of that attack,” he noted.
The suspects were rounded up in raids in four Sydney suburbs, Police and the New South Wales Police Force said in a news release.
The investigation is ongoing, officials said. Police did not specify the date or location of the threat to Australia's aviation industry.
The suspects are in police custody but have not yet been charged, Australian Federal Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin said.
"Exactly what is behind this is something that we will need to investigate fully," he said.
Transport security officials advised travelers to get to their airports two hours before their scheduled flight departures.
Last month, ISIS claimed responsibility for an attack at a suburban Melbourne apartment building where one man was killed and three police officers were wounded.
The attacker, who was known to police and out on parole, was shot dead after he ended a standoff by bursting out of an apartment.
