Three north-west suburban Melbourne men have been arrested at their homes in early-morning raids over an alleged terrorist plot.
A 30-year-old man from Dallas, a 26-year-old man from Campbellfield and a 21-year-old man from Greenvale face potential life in prison.
Victorian police say the alleged plot was inspired by I-S and aimed to kill as many people as possible in Melbourne.
Police say the men had tried to source a semiautomatic rifle.
Authorities say the men are Australian nationals of Turkish background who had their passports cancelled earlier this year.
Victorian premier Daniel Andrews has thanked those involved in the investigation. "On behalf of all Victorians, I want to thank each and every member involved, many hundreds of officers, who have put themselves in harm's way to keep all of us safe. And we congratulate, and we are very grateful -- all of us, as Victorians -- for the work that has been done."
Victorian police chief commissioner Graham Ashton says the three men had been under investigation since March and had become, in his words, "energised" in the past week about activating the plot.
He says, in recent days, attempts had been made to source a 22-calibre ((0.22)) semiautomatic rifle to use in carrying out an act of terrorism. The Commissioner says the trio planned to target a crowded place: "Certainly, it's our view that, whilst a specific location was not finalised, there was a view towards a crowded place, a place where maximum people would be attending, to be able to kill, we allege, to kill as maximum amount of people as possible."
Assistant Commissioner Ross Guenther says there are great complexities in making such arrests, with different investigations occurring simultaneously across the country.
The properties were raided under a joint counterterrorism operation involving Victoria Police, Australian Federal Police ((AFP)) and ASIO. Mr Guenther says such surveillance operations often involve around-the-clock work: "I think the fact that we work in such a joint way really helps that, but it is very much 24 hours a day. This job has been 24 hours a day for some time now. And, obviously, in the lead-up to our festive season, we're very conscious of actually making sure we've got all our resources invested in this process."
Police says two of the men have no criminal history, while the third was picked up in 2007 for the minor offence of failing to display L plates on his vehicle.
Authorities say there is no more threat to the community from the men. The acting deputy commissioner for national security, Ian McCartney, says the latest arrests show counterterrorism measures are working."Since September 2014, when the national threat level was raised, we have arrested 90 people related to 40 counterterrorism investigations across Australia. Today's result is another excellent result in the work we have done in that space. What it does is highlight, as the Premier stated, the really close working relationship with the AFP, ASIO and the Victoria Police and the work we do in this space."
We have asked Deakin University lecturer Matteo Vergani, who is an expert on terrorism, to comment the latest news.
