Lebanon foiled a plot by a suicide bomber to blow up a plane bound for the United Arab Emirates from Australia earlier this month, Lebanon’s interior minister said on Monday.
Nohad Machnouk said the bomber was Lebanese and had planned to blow up a plane bound for Abu Dhabi, news outlets reported.
He added two other brothers have been detained in Australia while a fourth is a senior self-style Islamic State member living in the terror group’s de facto capital Raqqa, northern Syria.
Earlier this month, Australian police described how an IS commander based overseas ordered a group of Australian men to build a bomb to smuggle onto a 15 July Etihad Airways flight from Sydney.
It was branded “one of the most sophisticated plots” to have ever been hatched on Australian soil.
The plan was aborted before a “high-end” explosive in a piece of luggage taken to Sydney’s airport was carried through security.
A second plot, alleged to have involved a “chemical dispersion device” to release highly-toxic gas, was also claimed to have been in the early stages of planning.
Australian officials have charged two men with two counts of planning a terrorist act.
Police allege the men began communicating with IS in April.
They were arrested on 29 July and are due to next appear in court later this year.
