The suspected ringleader of a failed plot to blow up an Etihad flight from Sydney to Dubai last year has been captured in Iraq. His Australian relative, an Islamic State soldier, has also been detained. Intelligence experts say the arrests could provide crucial information about the global terror threat...
It was a radical plot that made it all the way to the airport check-in counter.
Bombs hidden in a meat grinder and put in hand luggage, intended to obliterate an Etihad passenger plane from Sydney to Dubai in July last year.
Now the alleged mastermind has been captured in Iraq. The ABC reports Islamic State commander and Lebanese citizen Tarek Khayat, along with his Australian relative Ahmed Merhi, was detained earlier this year.
It's alleged Tarek Khayat directed two of his Sydney-based brothers to carry out the attack. The plan was allegedly called off at the last minute because a check-in officer said a third brother's carry-on bag was too heavy.
Australian authorities were unaware of the events until they received a tip off from Israeli intelligence days later.
One brother, Amer Khayat, was arrested in Lebanon. While Khaled and Mahmoud Khayat will face trial in Sydney next year.
Ahmed Merhi is the first Australian I-S fighter known to be detained in Iraq.
Police allege he was in direct contact with the same I-S cell that was involved in the shooting murder of police accountant Curtis Cheng in Western Sydney in 2015.
Concern remains for 100 or so other foreign fighters who have left Australia for Iraq and Syria.
