Two arrested in Sydney raids linked to alleged plot to attack naval base

NSW police deputy commissioner Catherine Burn says the two were arrested over an alleged plot to attack government buildings in Sydney, including the naval base at Woolloomooloo. Photograph: Ava Benny-Morrison/AAP

Two men are expected to be charged with terrorism offences on Wednesday in connection to handwritten notes seized last year allegedly detailing the early stages of a plot, including a possible attack on a government building and a navy base in the city’s east.

New South Wales police deputy commissioner Catherine Burn said there was no immediate threat and the possible attack had been disrupted in December 2014 when the documents were seized from a Regents Park home.

The notes did not detail “a specific act, a specific activity”, but allegedly mentioned locations including the AFP headquarters, NSW police stations and a navy base in Woolloomooloo.

“What we will be [alleging] is there was a group of people who came together with the idea, with the intent to do something and they started to make preparations to carry out a terrorist act,” she said.

“We think we [may have] disrupted what may have eventuated into something becoming more specific.”

The naval base at Garden Island at Woolloomooloo in Sydney’s east that was named as one of the possible targets of the alleged plot. Photograph: Paul Miller/AAP

Mohammad Almaouie, 20, and Abdullah Salihy, 24, were the latest to be arrested on Wednesday morning as part of Operation Appleby.

Almaouie’s Bankstown home had been targeted earlier in December in operations that saw five people, including his brother Jibryl, charged with conspiracy to conduct an act in preparation for a terrorist act. Almaouie is expected to be charged with the same offence, which carries a 25-year maximum jail term.

Salihy, of Merrylands in western Sydney, is expected to be charged with making a document likely to facilitate a terrorist act.

Several sets of fingerprints were allegedly found on the handwritten notes, which were seized from the home of 21-year-old Sulayman Khalid in December 2014.

Khalid was among those also charged earlier this month with the conspiracy offence, along with Ibrahim Ghazzawy, 20, and Maywand Osman, 22. A 15-year-old from Georges Hall was also charged but cannot be named for legal reasons.

Osman, Khalid and Jibryl Almaouie were already in custody facing other terrorism or firearms offences.

A total of 13 people have been charged as part of Operation Appleby, an ongoing counter-terrorism investigation which commenced in May 2014.