Australian teen pleads guilty to planning terror attack

The 17-year-old Melbourne boy on Monday pleaded guilty to "engaging in an act in preparation for, or planning, a terrorist act" after a police raid in May found a pressure cooker and steel pipes fitted with caps in his home.

Other evidence seized in the raid included a computer with encrypted documents entitled "Pressure Cooker Backpack Bomb with Switch Detonator" and "Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom," according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Two other charges were dropped against the boy, whose name could not be revealed due to his age. He is scheduled to face a directions hearing on Thursday.

Australian authorities have been gripped by concern over the threat of home-grown terrorism and some 110 citizens who have traveled to join the self-styled "Islamic State" in Iraq and Syria. Earlier this month, the government passed legislation to strip dual nationals of their citizenship if they engage in terrorism related offenses.

The 17-year-old's plea is the latest in a series of arrests against terror suspects. Last week five people, including a 15 and 20 year-old, were charged for plans to attack a government building following counter-terror raids.

Weeks before the May arrest of the 17-year-old boy, five other teenagers were arrested for planning an IS-inspired attack on police around the ANZAC holiday.

In October, a 15-year-old shot-dead an accountant during an attack on a police headquarters outside Sydney before being killed by police.

In December 2014, two-hostages were killed as police stormed a Sydney cafe to end a 17-hour hostage crisis. The lone-gunman in that attack was killed. Three months before that police shot dead another teenager in Melbourne following a knife attack on two counter-terrorism officers.

cw/rc (AFP, Reuters)