SYDNEY, Nov 14: Police indicated on Monday that Australia’s only nuclear reactor may have been a target of Muslim militants arrested last week on charges of plotting a major terrorist bombing. A police fact sheet submitted to court here said three of 18 Muslims arrested in Sydney and Melbourne had previously been stopped by police acting suspiciously near the Lucas Heights research reactor in suburban Sydney.

At the time of the incident in December 2004, police also found that a lock on a gate leading into the Lucas Heights facility had been cut, it said.

The 20-page document, tendered in court on Friday but not released to the public until Monday, also alleged that members of the group underwent ‘jihad training’ at rural areas west of Sydney.

And it revealed that police found 165 detonators along with large quantities of chemicals used to make explosives at some of the suspects’ homes.

Australian police and security agents detained the 18 men in the pre-dawn hours of November 8 in the country’s biggest counter-terrorism operation.

All were Australian-born or naturalized citizens and officials accused them of plotting a ‘catastrophic’ act of terrorism. —AFP