SYDNEY -- Police stepped up security at Australia's Parliament building today to guard against a possible terrorist attack, as authorities investigated a purported Islamic State beheading plot.
Intelligence agencies detected "chatter amongst these terrorist support networks" that the federal Parliament in Canberra could be targeted, Prime Minister Tony Abbott told Channel 7 television today.
"The Australian Federal Police will be taking over security both inside the building as well as outside," he said.
The government raised its terror alert last week to the highest level in a decade, citing the threat posed by Australian supporters of the Islamic State extremist group, which has taken over large parts of Iraq and Syria.
Authorities carried out the biggest anti-terrorism operation in the Australia's history Thursday, reportedly thwarting a plot by extremists in Sydney to randomly abduct a member of the public and behead the person as part of the Islamic State's global propaganda campaign.
A senior Islamic State "operative in Syria instructed his networks here in Australia to look to commit demonstration executions," Abbott told Channel 7 today. "Because we believed that a demonstration execution was likely ... we acted as we did to disrupt this particular network."
Abbott has committed 600 military personnel to the U.S.-led fight against the Islamic State in the Middle East.
After raiding more than a dozen properties in Sydney and detaining 15 people, officials said late Thursday that they were still holding six people. New South Wales police did not say why nine of those detained were released, or whether they would face charges later.
One of the detained, Omarjan Azari, 22, appeared in a Sydney court Thursday, charged with preparing and planning for a terrorist act and conspiring with Mohammad Ali Baryalei, who is overseas and wanted by Australian police on accusations of terrorism-related activity.
Prosecutor Michael Allnutt told the court Thursday that the planned act was designed to "shock, horrify" and terrify the public.
Defense lawyer Steven Boland said the allegations were based on one intercepted phone call. Azari, who didn't apply for bail, was kept in custody, and the case was adjourned until Nov. 13.
Australia is strengthening laws against domestic supporters of extremist groups and says at least 60 of its citizens are fighting with militant groups in Syria and Iraq. The government has said it believes that 20 Australians have returned from fighting abroad and about 100 more are funding or facilitating militants.
Abbott said that this weekend Australia will deploy 400 air force personnel, 200 special forces soldiers and fighter jets to a U.S. military base in the United Arab Emirates, as a coalition formed by President Barack Obama prepares to step up the fight against Islamic State.
Abbott's Liberal-National coalition government last month committed about $570 million over four years to counterterrorism measures. It plans to introduce security laws that will allow the arrest and jailing of returning foreign fighters while preventing extremists from departing Australia.
Information for this article was contributed by Kristen Gelineau and Rod McGuirk of The Associated Press.
A Section on 09/19/2014