Tuesday, November 08, 2005
GUNFIGHT AT GREEN VALLEY MOSQUE
Further to today’s arrests, a suspect shoots it out with Sydney police:
Police have shot and wounded a suspected terrorist after he allegedly opened fire at them outside a mosque in Sydney’s west this morning.
The man, who was wearing a backpack, had been under surveillance by counter-terrorism officers in Green Valley just before 9am.
When police approached the suspect after he left the mosque in Wilson Rd, the man allegedly fired two shots - wounding an officer in the hand.
Police returned fire, hitting the man in the neck with a single shot.
The wounded officer didn’t even bother going to hospital. Meanwhile, the nine suspects arrested earlier in Melbourne have appeared in court:
Prosecutor Richard Maidment QC told the Melbourne Magistrate’s court the nine formed a terrorist group to kill “innocent men and women in Australia”.
Victorian police apparently have some 240 hours of telephone intercepts to support their case. Eight men are due shortly to face court in Sydney; it probably doesn’t help his chances that one of the accused—charged with acting in preparation or planning for a terrorist attack, namely to manufacture explosives—is named Mohamed Ali Blomar.
UPDATE. The SMH has updated its item, and now spells Blomar as Elomar. The earlier version was better.