ALMOST 300 Australians travelling to the Middle East have been hauled off planes in the past nine months in an escalation of counterterrorism operations by spy and ­policing agencies.

The travellers were stopped amid fears they could be off to join Islamic State to fight with people such as Mohamed Elomar and Khaled Sharrouf, who slipped through the net.

The latest national security briefing to the federal government has also revealed that 56 “coercive interviews” — where witnesses are compelled to give evidence — had been held in secret by a foreign fighter’s taskforce set up under the Australian Crime Commission.

The ACC is investigating possible links between radicalised groups and organised crime, raising new fears that sophisticated weapons, such as semiautomatic guns, could fall into the hands of potential terrorists.

media_camera Security agencies are working hard to stop any more Australians joining Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar.

The Daily Telegraph, in a private briefing from a senior intelligence source, was given the most ­recent counterterrorism data provided to government.

The data revealed concerns about a heightened level of activity among those under surveillance.

“(Disrupted terrorist activities) are coming closer together, warning times are reducing, and the perpetrators are getting younger,” the source said. “The numbers are very disturbing.”

The intelligence brief revealed that between August last year and the end of April, counterterrorism units had conducted almost 106,000 real-time threat assessments.

A total of 284 travellers had been offloaded from flights leaving Australia — the majority of them in Sydney — over concerns they could be travelling to the Middle East to join Islamic State.

media_camera The ability to track potential terrorists is becoming more difficult.

Also worrying intelligence officials was the rising number of people in Australia funding terrorist groups.

The intelligence brief revealed that AUSTRAC’s National Security Operations Team had detected and referred more than 527 suspected terrorism financing matters to ASIO and the Australian Federal Police.

The intelligence source said while agencies were having success in preventing attacks, the number of threats was rising — not abating — and the ability to track them was ­becoming more difficult.

“The recent charging of a 17-year-old with planning a terrorist act brings the number of people charged as a result of counterterrorism operations since last September to 23,” the source said.