Australia charges four more over alleged terror plot

Australia on Wednesday charged four more men with planning a suicide assault on a Sydney army barracks, prompting an angry outburst from one of them, as details emerged of the alleged plot.

Wissam Mahmoud Fattal, 33, refused to stand at Melbourne Magistrates' Court and shouted angrily as he was led away. A total of five men have been charged over the attack, which police said was just weeks away.

"You call us terrorists when you send troops to kill innocent people in Iraq and Afghanistan," Fattal yelled.

"I've never killed anyone in my life... take me from this country."

Saney Aweys, 26, Yacqub Khayre, 22, and Abdirahman Ahmed, 25, also appeared in court charged with preparing the Sydney attack or helping someone engage in hostile acts overseas.

The fifth man charged, 25-year-old Nayef El Sayed, also refused to stand when he faced court on Tuesday, hours after dawn raids across Melbourne carried out by hundreds of police.

Police say the plan was to storm Sydney's Holsworthy base, home to thousands of troops including a major anti-extremist unit, with firearms in what would have been Australia's worst militant attack.

Khayre is also accused of travelling to Somalia to train and fight with the Al-Qaeda-inspired Shebab, a group that is battling pro-government forces and controls large parts of the war-torn African country.

Prosecutors said the men wanted to become "martyrs" and revealed details of the plot, including text messages and CCTV footage of Fattal outside Holsworthy on March 28.

"I strolled around... it is easy to enter," Fattal allegedly texted later.

Australia meanwhile launched a review of security arrangements at bases such as Holsworthy, which occupies a large site on Sydney's outskirts.

"The Government has decided, given the circumstances, it is appropriate to review current measures," Defence Minister John Faulkner said in a statement.

"An initial assessment of the current adequacy of base security arrangements will be finalised this month."

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he was also considering listing Shebab as a terrorist organisation.

"This has been the subject of some internal deliberation within the government... for a period of time," Rudd told ABC radio.

Australia, which has about 1,550 troops in Afghanistan and was also involved in Iraq, has never been hit by Islamic extremists on its own soil, although four people died in bombings in Sydney and Melbourne in 1978 and 1986.

Australian citizens have been killed in attacks abroad, including 92 on Indonesia's resort island of Bali in 2002 and 2005 and three in last month's Jakarta hotel blasts.

Last week Islamic convert Shane Kent admitted plotting to kill thousands of people in an attack on a major sports event in Melbourne.

Eight members of Kent's extremist cell have already been jailed over plans to bomb the 2005 Australian Football League Grand Final in Australia's biggest anti-terrorism trial.