17 arrests in Australian anti-terror crackdown

Australian police on Tuesday arrested 17 people, including a radical Muslim cleric, on charges of planning a terrorist attack and committing to ‘‘violent jihad in Australia’’ after raids in which one suspected militant was shot.

The raid that yielded eight arrests in Sydney and nine in Melbourne was the country’s largest ever counter-terrorism operat on involving a 16-month investigation. Police seized chemicals, firearms, computers, backpacks and travel documents.

Police said the loose-knit group did not have a target, but it was trying to buy chemicals similar to those used in the London bombings in July. ‘‘I am satisfied that we have disrupted what I would regard as the final stages of a terrorist attack or the launch of a terrorist attack in Australia,’’ said New South Wales state Police Commissioner Ken Moroney.