'Monster attack' planned on base

MEMBERS of an alleged terrorist conspiracy group spoke about working together "on a great monstrous thing" and needing only 20 minutes to take out as many soldiers as possible as they planned an attack on a Sydney army base.

MEMBERS of an alleged terrorist conspiracy group spoke about working together "on a great monstrous thing" and needing only 20 minutes to take out as many soldiers as possible as they planned an attack on a Sydney army base.

Conversations recorded by federal police on secret telephone intercepts reveal two of the accused talked to sheiks in Somalia to try to get a fatwa -- religious blessing -- for their attack and described their plans to get guns and rifles for the terror plot.

Details of these discussions emerged yesterday at the Melbourne Magistrates Court as three of the accused, Saney Edow Aweys, Nayef El Sayed and Yacqub Khayre, applied for bail.

Australian Federal Police counter-terrorism agent Chris Salmon read out a prosecution summary of the case to the court, which included transcripts of recorded conversations about being on a mission to "please Allah" and desires to "enter the paradise" of the after life.

"So they want an operational martyrdom," Sheik Abdirahman Ahmed, from Somalia, allegedly asks Mr Aweys on July 10.

"Yes," Mr Aweys replies. "They know where they can get them (the guns). Then they want to enter the military forces stationed in the barracks. Their desire is to fan out as much as possible ... until they would be hit. Twenty minutes would be enough for us to take out five, six, 10, eight, whatever Allah knows."

Sheik Abdirahman then asks: "Could there be disastrous consequences?" Mr Aweys says: "Yes, it's Australia and the city of Melbourne. As you may be aware ... we are present in their midst. The infidels, their forces are cast in the lands of Islam and causing great damage."

Another recorded conversation between the fourth accused, Wissam Mahmoud Fattal and Mr El Sayed, also talks about obtaining a fatwa for their planned attack on the Holsworthy army base in southwestern Sydney.

"I would like to strike big if its halal (approved)," Mr El Sayed allegedly says to Mr Fattal, who was in the Melbourne Remand Centre at the time after being charged with an unrelated assault. "Allah willing, we will strike good, and the rest will distribute it on the brothers."

Mr Fatal says all he wants is an afterlife. "We are doing something very terrific for Allah. We are working together on a great monstrous thing and we will need to persevere."

Mr Salmon told the court Mr Aweys was recruiting men to fight for Somali extremist group al-Shabaab against the country's government and he helped Mr Khayre travel to Somalia and train with the terror group.

"He (Mr Khayre) has acquired skills which are dangerous and could be used to avoid police," AFP agent Bruce Castle told the bail hearing.

The court also heard police believe Mr Khayre left his passport with an al-Shabaab leader in Somalia.

Mr Salmon said police were still obtaining evidence from the US, Britain and Kenya. He said several other people may have been involved in the plot.

He confirmed police had not seized weapons at any of the 19 homes they raided on August 4, apart from a pair of nunchucks, which they later learned belonged to someone else.

Mr Khayre, Mr Fattal, Mr Sayed and Mr Aweys, along with Abdirahman Ahmed, have been charged with conspiring to prepare for a terrorist act.

Mr Aweys and Mr Ahmed have also been charged with helping Walid Osman Mohamed go to Somalia and fight with al-Shabaab. Mr Aweys faces a third charge of preparing to go over to engage in conflict in Somalia.

The bail hearings, before magistrate Peter Reardon, continue.