AFP says a senior I-S leader was the mastermind behind a New South Wales-based conspiracy to bring down a plane

Police will allege one of two men charged over the plot tried to have his unsuspecting brother take a bomb on the flight out of Sydney. Australian Federal Police deputy commissioner Michael Phelan says police will allege the plot to bring down a passenger jet included a failed attempt to place an improvised explosive device on an Etihad flight out of Sydney on July the 15th. Forty-nine year-old Khaled Mahmoud Khayat allegedly accompanied his brother to Sydney's international airport ahead of an Etihad flight to Abu Dhabi, knowing his luggage contained a military-grade explosive. He and another 32 year-old man, both from south-west Sydney, are each charged with two counts of acting in preparation for, or planning, a terrorist attack. Commissioner Phelan says the alleged plan was one of the most sophisticated ever attempted on Australian soil and was prepared with the support of I-S.

Australian Federal Police deputy commissioner Michael Phelan Source: AAP